Classrooms are not the only place where Houstonians are scrambling to hold the line against potential takeovers that the city’s Democratic leaders see as driven by politics in a state where Republicans control the Statehouse and governor's office.
What's different in Houston, local leaders say, is the range of efforts aimed at controlling how America's fourth-largest city — home to over 2 million people — runs classrooms, elections and budgets.“What you’re seeing is just specific fights about, quite frankly, what is the best public policy,” said Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston, who is a carrying a bill that would allow the state to take over a local elections office for cause.
“Until the Legislature is a little more diverse in terms of partisanship, I think we’re going to continue to see these efforts," Cross said. A takeover of Houston schools would be one of the largest ever in the country, said Beth Schueler, an assistant professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia.
When the district's board of trustees voted to officially end their lawsuit Thursday, one board member, Elizabeth Santos, tearfully said: "It is time for the community to come together and win by uniting our voices at the Legislature and our neighborhood schools and at the ballot box." Hispanics are the largest demographic group in Harris County, which is home to Houston. It also has a large Black population. When Republicans approved that outlawed expanded voting options that Houston had put in place, Democrats called it an attack on minority voters.
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