Last night’s election featured a race with implications for the future of education in Houston, as Harris County voted “No” on Houston ISD’s historic $4.4 billion bond proposal.
Now that HISD’s proposal has officially been rejected, concerned parents in the Houston area are left asking, “Where do we go from here?”
KPRC 2′s Bill Barajas sat down with Ruth Kravetz, the co-founder of the Community Voices for Public Education program in Houston. The nonprofit aims to unite parents, students and educators, and Barajas wanted to find out why so many Houstonians were opposed to the proposal.
Bill Barajas, KPRC 2: Talk to me a little bit about the bond last night. [It] didn’t pass. You were opposed to it, so were many people; we could tell that by the result. Talk to me a little bit about how you’re feeling this morning.
Ruth Kravetz: I think this win is bittersweet. We—parents, students, teachers, community members in public education—we support public ed, we support public ed funds. We support public ed bonds. We promote equity, access and democracy.
So, for us, this win is a hard win. But what Mike Miles isn’t noticing is that this isn’t about politics. This is about children. And to him, I say our community has spoken. Our kids can’t wait until he leaves, so we can get an elected board back, an elected, responsible, accountable leadership so our kids can get the kind of education that they need.
When Miles says that this is about politics, I think parents are aghast that he would imply that parents don’t love and respect their very own children all across every single neighborhood in Houston. I think teachers are appalled that he doesn’t realize that they spend hours and hours trying to create beautiful lessons so children can learn. Our kids can’t wait until Miles leaves. Our kids can’t wait until we get responsible leadership. Our kids can’t wait until they’re allowed to read novels in English class again. Our kids can’t wait until we get a superintendent who doesn’t spend half a million taxpayer dollars on a musical about himself. Our kids really can’t wait, and I hope that the Greater Houston Partnership, Good Reason Houston, business elites, and people all across Houston ask him to leave so that our children are not endangered even one day more.
Barajas: One of the things that I think folks can agree on—either way you voted on this—is that there are upgrades that are needed at HISD schools. How does HISD move forward, knowing that some of these upgrades are needed and they’re needed now?
Kravetz: That’s a difficult question, and I think it’s threefold. The upgrades are needed. We also need certified teachers in the classroom. We need accountable leadership so that the money that is available is spent on children.
So, when Mike Miles said, “We’ll have to make hard decisions; the money’s gone,” what he should have said is, “I spent all the people’s money on foolish things last year, and I wanted a blank check for $4.4 billion to spend more money on foolish things like a half-million-dollar musical about himself. Like the $100 million that he spent on redundant furniture. Like the extreme cost for getting rid of 40% of the teachers, because it costs money to do that.
We are in this place today because of him. It is true that we’re in a pickle in the state of Texas. We have a Republican-dominated legislature. We have a governor who’s holding on to $32 billion in the rainy day fund that should be meant for our schools. But there is money that can be spent. So when Miles talks about all the air conditioning that needs to be repaired and replaced in HISD, I say listen to yourself, Mike Miles. Why don’t you bring back the 50% of air conditioning repair people, the HVAC technicians that you got rid of last year, and the custodians and the other people who helped to make our school run, why don’t you do that? Why don’t you apply for grants that you left on the table? The one thing that the state provides ample money for is safety and security. There are huge grants. And why don’t you spend the money that we have right now on our children and not on tripling the number of people who make over $200,000 a year like you did last year? Gutting homeless services, gutting wraparound services, and gutting special ed supports. Let’s make sure that kids get what they need now. And that means that you have to leave.
Barajas: What was last night like for you once you heard the news? What was that like? Was it bittersweet?
Kravetz: You know, I spent my whole life as an educator. I’m an HISD parent. I believe in the power and the promise of public education. I know it is the cornerstone of a thriving democracy. After the election last night, I am even more emboldened to recognize that it is with our children that we have a future, and everyone on both sides of the aisle needs to realize that public school is a place where everything starts.
Kids need to be inspired, nurtured, supported and schooling needs to be more than a whole bunch of worksheets. It needs to be about loving learning, so that kids go home and say, “Mommy, I learned this wonderful thing today,” so that they’re happy today, happy tomorrow, knowledgeable in third grade and then and then leading full, well-reasoned lives when they become adults.
Barajas: One of the things that Mike Miles was asked this morning while he was at KPRC 2 was whether we would see another bond in the May election. Would you again vote “No” to this? And when might folks change their mind and say, “Okay, enough is enough. The kids need this.” Is that when Mike Miles is gone?
Kravetz: As I’ve said before, parents want a bond. Teachers want a bond. When, in a million years, would you have thought that parents and teachers would come together and say, “Please don’t vote for this bond?” There was a parent who had a leaky roof at one of the elementary schools that Mike Miles mentioned, who said, “I know that my classroom needs infrastructure, but if you pay for this bond, we won’t get it.”
I had blood work done on Monday, and I talked to a phlebotomist who’s a parent at Highland Heights Elementary School. I had never met her before. She said, “What I want is—stronger, better schools—but what I want first is for my four-year-old to be able to sing songs in pre-K.”
Mike Miles has forbidden pre-K teachers to be able to sing with their kids. Mike Miles has told middle school teachers that they can’t teach novels in seventh grade or 10th grade. I think what people want is a bond. I think what people want are strong, qualified, certified teachers in every classroom. I think what people want are strong public schools in every neighborhood, but they don’t trust Mike Miles to spend the money right, and they don’t trust Mike Miles and the unelected board to treat our children in a way that they would treat their own. And it’s time for him to go.
We need, as a community, to rally together and send him packing. We need local control. We need accountability. We need people who love our children as much as everyone who voted “No” yesterday. This is about our children. This isn’t about politics. This is about ensuring that a seven-year-old comes home every day and is happy that they learn something and is eager to tell their parents about it.
Barajas: Do you ever see a bond passing if Mike Miles remains superintendent?
Kravetz: In 1996—the last time a bond failed in Houston, Superintendent Mike Miles could learn a lesson from this—the superintendent at the time said, “The people have spoken and I’m listening.” And he repackaged the bond, sought community input, made sure there was more accountability in place, and a new bond was passed 18 months later. So, I absolutely see a bond passing, but it can’t pass under this kind of leadership where we don’t have local control, where it’s where this governance is making a mockery of democracy.
Barajas: What do you need to do?
Kravetz: We need people who are more powerful than me, a retired teacher and an HISD parent, even though hundreds of us have come together. We need powerful people to do what they always do behind closed doors and demand a different leadership in our city to protect Houston so that the children that are six years old today and eight years old today and 11 years old today can grow up to be the leaders of tomorrow. That can’t happen under Mike Miles, the unelected and unaccountable board of managers. That’s what we need. We need people coming together.
Barajas: If they’re able to repackage the demands at a later date—
Kravetz: With different leadership.
Barajas: It has to be with different leadership?
Kravetz: It has to be with different leadership.
Barajas: Otherwise, it doesn’t pass, in your mind?
Kravetz: I think the easiest way to explain this is thinking about a roof. If you have a roof that has holes in it, you need that roof fixed. If you hire an unscrupulous roofer and contractor, then you end up with neither a new roof nor your money.
If the unscrupulous roofer then tries to fix another roof, you in good conscience need to tell your neighbor, “Don’t use that guy. He’s going to steal your money.” So, I’m saying today, Miles has shown us over and over again over the last year with all the things that he’s done.
Barajas: It wouldn’t matter at this point if the bond is repackaged. If he’s in place and in the leadership position, you don’t think a bond will pass.
Kravetz: If Miles listened to the parents, students, teachers and community members who’ve spoken out so forcefully in the hundreds for the last 18 months, if the unelected and unaccountable board of managers recognize that in a democracy they need, there needs to be some accountability. If the governor and the Texas Education Agency commissioner said, “You know what? We need to put some elected leadership back on the board,” and they put they returned the elected board, and they ended the takeover, because they can do that whenever they want because the TEA has final and unappealable authority to do so. If all those things happened and Miles changed and we had an elected board that we could hold accountable by voting out of office if they spent the people’s money wrong, then sure.
If Mike Miles said, tomorrow, “I’m going to sit down with all the parents and teachers and listen carefully to what they say and listen carefully to both what they say about the problems with the bond—because it was a grifter’s paradise. It’s not just that he’s done bad things last year. This bond was a grifter’s paradise, and this and it’s also a referendum on the harmful things that Mike Miles did. So, if tomorrow, Mike Miles comes to [KPRC 2] and says, “I spent the money wrong last year. I’ve learned a lesson. I should let kids read books in school and kindergartners should be allowed to have reading nooks and not learn by worksheet and take four tests a day and kids and teachers and community should be respected.” Then I say more power to you, Mike Miles. If you change, we change.
Barajas: So just to be clear, if Mike Miles remains in this leadership position as superintendent of HISD, do you see any bond passing? Even if it’s repackaged and put on the ballot at a later date?
Kravetz: As I said before, the bond was repackaged in 1996 and the voters approved it because there was more accountability, because it was a better bond. This bond is a grifter’s paradise. The problem with this bond and the reason why people voted this bond down is partially because the bond was a grifter’s paradise, but partially because it was a referendum on Mike Miles’ leadership. So certainly, if Mike Miles changed completely and started listening to the people and if we had an elected board to hold him accountable, then there is a slim possibility that he could stay, and we’d vote for a new bond.
But as it is right now, when you see when it looks like a duck and smells like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck. And Mike Miles has shown us that he is not responsible to our children. He doesn’t care about our children and teachers. We cannot trust him with the people’s money. So he needs to go. And we implore every citizen and every leader in this city to push him out of here because he is an impediment to helping our children.
Barajas: It is clear you were opposed to this bond. If Mike Miles wasn’t in that leadership position, do you think you would have voted differently?
Kravetz: If Mike Miles wasn’t in that leadership position and it was a different bond, better package, not as wasteful? That didn’t just that that for $4.4 billion did major rebuild to more than a 19 full rebuilds and 16 partial rebuilds. And there was an elected board to hold him accountable. I would vote for this bond tomorrow.