Texas superintendents on Saturday said state takeovers of school districts — where democratically elected school boards are ousted and replaced with a state-appointed board of managers — is not a sustainable means to improve student learning.
Two of Texas’ largest school districts, Houston ISD, and most recently, Fort Worth ISD, are under a takeover, after five consecutive years of failing ratings at one of their campuses.
“Do I think that’s sustainable? Absolutely not. I don’t,” Martha Salazar-Zamora, the superintendent of Tomball ISD, said at The Texas Tribune Festival. “I don’t think that’s what local control is supposed to look like. I don’t actually think that’s what the public school experience is supposed to look like.”
About 40 miles north of Houston, Tomball ISD is a high-performing district with about 22,000 students. The district earned an A rating in 2025.
On the panel Saturday, school leaders from across the state — Salazar-Zamora, San Angelo ISD Superintendent Christopher Moran and Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura — warned state takeovers are threatening local control at a time districts are already cash-strapped because of budget deficits.
Since 2000, the Texas Education Agency has taken over 11 school districts around the state. State leaders have reasoned it is their last resort to improve academic performance, a responsibility public schools have to its communities.
Upheaval in the Houston school district has shown how contentious takeovers can get. While state-appointed superintendent Mike Miles touted no failing schools in 2025 because of his reforms, it came at the cost of a mass exodus of students and teachers.
The superintendents on Saturday said that they don’t shy away from accountability measures to ensure their students are on track with their learning. However, they added, decision-making power should remain with local school boards.
At the helm of the Austin school district, Segura is currently looking at closing about a dozen campuses and redrawing boundaries, primarily to avoid such state sanctions that would affect the district’s more than 70,000 students.
“Right now, if we continue our trajectory, we will not be able to serve our students, and that will ultimately lead to a state intervention at some point down the road,” Segura said. “I do not want to be there. I’m not going to be the superintendent that allows us to get there.”
The emergence of private school vouchers could pose another challenge for Texas superintendents.
The state’s voucher program, which was approved earlier this year and will launch during the 2026-27 academic year, will allow families to use state funds to pay for their children’s home-school or private school education. Public schools are largely funded based on attendance, which means districts would lose money if families move their kids from public to private schools.
However, private schools won’t be required to take the same standardized testing that largely determines whether the state can replace a public school district’s democratically elected school board with a board of managers. They can instead administer a nationally recognized exam of their choosing.
During a Saturday Texas Tribune panel on the new law, Robert Enlow of the pro-voucher organization EdChoice said that while testing is important, he doesn’t think it’s the only measure of success. Enlow also expressed skepticism about the idea that schools — even traditional public schools — should all have to take the same tests.
The other panelists — Weadé James of the Center for American Progress, Jamie Rosenberg of the finance and technology company ClassWallet, and Jeannie Lehman Lopez of the Austin Council of PTAs — highlighted the importance of transparency, family engagement and academic achievement when measuring the program’s success.
But Texas should also ensure that the voucher program does not decimate the public school system, James said.
“I think it would be a total disservice,” she said, “to eliminate the public schools that serve the preponderance of students.”
Disclosure: EdChoice has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
