I’s just going to leave this here.
Most Houston ISD campuses have reported sharper enrollment declines since the controversial state takeover, with New Education System schools reporting some of the largest drops compared to previous years.
HISD, like many urban school districts nationwide, has seen a steady decline in enrollment for nearly a decade. However, a Chronicle analysis of Texas Education Agency enrollment data shows that the rate of enrollment declines in HISD has accelerated since the takeover.
The data shows that HISD’s enrollment was declining by an average of about 2% each year in the five years prior to the state takeover in June 2023. Since then, the district’s student enrollment has declined by about 4% each year, largely driven by enrollment declines at the 130 NES campuses.
Enrollment at NES schools declined by 3.7% each year in the five years before the takeover, while enrollment at non-NES schools declined by about 1.5%. In the two years since the state takeover, enrollment at NES campuses has declined by about 6% yearly, while the rate for non-NES campuses has remained the same.
HISD’s fall snapshot data shows that about 75% of its campuses reported year-over-year enrollment declines in the 2024-25 school year. The district lost nearly 7,400 students in 2024, which was the largest year-over-year overall enrollment decline in the district since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Duncan Klussmann, an assistant professor at the University of Houston, said while improving academic performance should continue to be a priority for HISD, the district’s growing enrollment declines will have “significant financial implications” if they continue.
HISD needs to find a balance between addressing student outcomes and paying more attention to its declining enrollment, he said.
“As policy makers focus much more on student achievement and the STAAR test, that’s not necessarily what parents align to or what they want their child’s experience to be,” Klussmann said. “(NES is) a very innovative approach and has been very successful in producing higher test scores. That’s what it’s designed to do, but that is not what every parent is looking for.”
This has been one of my concerns about Mike Miles all along. He may generate the better test scores that the state is demanding. In the best case scenario, that also leads to better future outcomes – higher graduation rates, more college success, better employment and salary futures, etc – which would be a huge accomplishment. We’ll have to wait some number of years to see how well those correlate. In the meantime, HISD is shrinking faster than it had been before, which will lead to less money coming in from the state and less political power as fewer people in the area have a direct stake in HISD and its success. I fear, and I am far from alone in this, that what Miles is doing is not only not sustainable on its own, it will threaten HISD’s long term ability to provide for its students as a whole. Given the lack of any oversight on Miles, that is an even bigger concern now. I am rooting for the best case outcome for the students in the NES schools, which includes a large population of students and families that have been long overlooked by HISD and the state of Texas. I continue to question how this is being done and whether it will be more than a short term phenomenon. I don’t see a way we can explore other possibilities. We’re locked in, like it or not.
Miles is a worthless piece of shit peddling a worthless education system. He is destroying HISD to satisfy his ego. He really needs to be in prison for fraud, along with Morath and Abbott.
I am so glad my kid graduated before this debacle was foisted on the people of Houston.