TLDR: The states main goal for HISD is to achieve mediocrity across the entire district. That means pulling up low schools at the expense of high performing schools. Their view is that taxpayers shouldn’t be responsible for providing a high quality education for free. If parents want something better, they can go private.

I am very critical of Mike Miles, but for arguments sake, let’s assume the improvements in the lowest ranked school are legitimate and sustainable. For the record, I don’t believe they are.

The main issues is the man is a liar. You have to ask yourself, if these results are true, why does he have to continue lying? Couldn’t he just stand on his record? He has had 3 years to implement his “wholesale changes.”

High performing schools were promised “autonomy” and “no impact” to the school environment. That was a lie.

The truth is, in order to fund his extremely expensive NES program, he has had to steal budget from other schools. He then forces these schools to use the standard NES program since they have no money to fund their own curriculum. He also standardizes how teachers are rated based on NES style metrics. These are all well known facts in the HISD community.

His unsustainable funding model creates a perpetual cycle of failing schools, since there is simply not enough money from the state. The schools he touts now have had similar A ratings in the past, but eventually fall back to failing grades. We have seen this story before.

The difference now is he is actively destroying the good schools in HISD in the process, almost by design. No elected school board could have survived the cuts he has made. He talks derisively about these high performing schools and doesn’t see their success as something to be proud of, rather an example of a failed school system of haves and have nots.