A self-formed commission investigating the state takeover of Houston ISD released an 81-page report Thursday concluding that the intervention has caused widespread harm to students, parents, teachers, staff and the broader Houston community, and it is now pushing state lawmakers to rein in the powers of unelected officials who run the district. The findings land as Houston ISD, under state-appointed leadership since 2023, touts improved test scores and a stabilized budget heading into a possible exit from state control within the next year.
The Commission on the HISD Takeover, a 14-person panel not officially sanctioned by the state, said it collected more than 100 accounts from students, teachers and community members through three public listening sessions and private interviews with anonymous participants, according to Houston Public Media. The panel is co-chaired by state Sen. Molly Cook, state Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons and Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen, who wrote on his Substack newsletter that the takeover left rigorous and engaging curriculum replaced by repetitive scripted lessons focused on test preparation, and that certified teachers with years of experience were fired for refusing to implement policies they knew were harmful to children.
According to the same report, the takeover diminished the curriculum, dismantled relationships between students, teachers and families, destroyed democratic governance, and degraded financial stewardship. Bossen said state interventions of this kind can leave schools significantly worse off than before they began. Commissioner Jasmine Lee said the report analyzed people's lived experiences in their own voices, the newsletter notes.
What the Commission Wants Changed
The panel is recommending that lawmakers raise the threshold for triggering a state takeover, replacing the current single-failing-campus standard with a requirement showing a pattern of underperformance across a larger portion of a district. It also wants guardrails placed on state-appointed boards and superintendents and limits on the education commissioner's authority, asking lawmakers to specify exactly when appointed officials hold full, partial or no authority over a district.
The commission further proposed shifting the state's approach from punishment to collaboration that empowers communities and elected leaders, per the newsletter. Among its other asks: a local process for ending a state intervention, and a requirement that any extension of a takeover first go before voters in a local referendum. Currently, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath holds sole authority to end a state intervention, Houston Public Media reports.
Cook said takeovers in Texas start too easily and lack a clear path to ending, and she plans to refile Senate Bill 1764 to address the issue, according to the outlet. Houston ISD's takeover was initially authorized for two years before Morath extended it in June 2025; exiting the intervention would trigger a three-year transition period, the station reports.
How the Takeover Began
The intervention traces back to Wheatley High School, which triggered the takeover after a string of failing accountability ratings that the Texas Legislature, in a 2015 law, said would require TEA intervention once a single campus failed five consecutive years. Accountability ratings are issued yearly to every public school campus by the TEA and largely focus on students' STAAR scores. Wheatley earned its first A rating this year, Houston Public Media reports.
State-appointed superintendent Mike Miles sought approval in 2025 to close or consolidate 12 schools as part of the district's restructuring. Miles told a state Senate hearing that HISD's accountability ratings had substantially improved since the takeover began, and both Miles and Morath said in August 2026 that the district appeared on track to exit the takeover relatively soon.
HISD and TEA Point to Gains
Houston ISD, in a statement, said its transformation is delivering measurable results for students and families, pointing to increased investment directly in instruction, expanded opportunities for students and a strengthened academic foundation preparing them for life after graduation. The district's own transformation report says the share of its budget directed toward classroom instruction and instructional leadership rose from 57% in 2023 to 72% in 2026, and that it closed a projected shortfall of more than $520 million with a nearly balanced budget for the 2026-27 school year.
The district also reported that schools rated A or B more than doubled, from 93 campuses in 2023 to 205 in 2026, and that it now meets or exceeds state performance on 13 of 20 STAAR assessments, up from trailing the state on every exam three years earlier. Among New Education System campuses specifically, those earning an A or B rating rose from just 11 before the transformation to 91, and HISD reported that sixth graders finished 23 percentile points ahead of large urban districts in math growth after three years.
The district said overtime spending fell from $14 million in 2023 to $5.9 million in 2026, saving nearly $8.1 million annually, and that average returning teacher salaries rose by $15,000 over three years. But the commission's findings, and reporting from the Texas Monthly, paint a starkly different staffing picture: nearly a third of HISD teachers left the district in each of the two years following the takeover, and more than 20% of HISD teachers were uncertified at the start of the 2025-26 school year. The Houston Chronicle reported that average annual teacher departures rose 48% during the takeover's first two years compared with the five years prior.
A Pattern Spreading Across Texas
Houston ISD is far from alone. The Texas Education Agency has taken control of at least eight school districts since 2020, including five in just the past year and a half, according to Texas Monthly, which identified Beaumont, Connally, Fort Worth and neighboring Lake Worth, La Joya, Shepherd and South San Antonio among the districts currently under state control. Fort Worth ISD, a 60,000-student district, became the most recent addition when the state took it over in March, as reported by the Fort Worth Report.
Research on the effectiveness of such takeovers nationally remains mixed, according to the Texas Tribune, which cited a study of takeovers in dozens of districts between 2010 and 2018 that found no evidence the intervention improved student reading and math performance even after nearly a decade. That broader uncertainty frames the stakes of the HISD commission's push for legislative guardrails, as Houston's experience becomes a test case other Texas districts may soon follow.
