Houston ISD waited nearly a full school year to seek a state waiver, allowing appointed Superintendent Mike Miles to lead the district for 11 months without a required superintendent certification, state records show, even after the district’s state-appointed board authorized administrators to apply for one the previous June.
The Texas Education Agency approved the waiver on June 4, the last day of the 2025-2026 school year, making it retroactive to cover the months Miles had already served without an active certification or a waiver. The new waiver covers three school years, starting with the 2025-26 school year.
Nearly all of the state’s 1,000 traditional public school superintendents hold the superintendent certification required by state law to lead school districts. A small number receive waivers for up to three years from the state, often while they work toward certification or when districts face unusual hiring circumstances.
In Miles’ case, HISD applied for his waiver after most of the school year had passed, and his application did not lay out a clear path for him to obtain the credential. While the state has approved a handful of other waivers in recent years — including some for other state-appointed superintendents — few came as late in the school year and almost all of them included detailed plans to obtain certification.
“Approving a waiver for a school year on the last day of that school year inverts the logic of this rule, and waivers are supposed to authorize something before it happens,” said Texas Tech University professor Jacob Kirksey. “So, a retroactive grant raises some basic accountability questions rather than answering them.”
In a statement, the TEA said Miles’ waiver covers the entire school year and that the agency has “broad discretion” under Texas Education Code to grant waivers. State law permits retroactive waivers.
“This is an existing practice that is not unique to HISD,” according to a Texas Education Agency statement.
Neither HISD nor Miles answered questions about what caused the delay in filing his waiver application, his plan to obtain certification or whether he intends to remain uncertified for the entirety of the state intervention.
The district instead sent a statement on behalf of HISD Board President Ric Campo, who said Texas law has a pathway for the board to hire a superintendent who doesn’t have a certificate through a waiver.
“The Board has utilized this option because we are confident in Superintendent Miles’ leadership, experience, and proven ability to deliver results for Houston ISD students,” Campo wrote in the statement. “The Board believes Superintendent Miles has demonstrated the qualifications, effectiveness, and track record necessary to continue leading Houston ISD’s progress.”
State records show that the TEA approved eight superintendent certification waivers, not including HISD’s, for the 2025-26 school year.
Of those districts, three — Beaumont, Fort Worth and La Joya ISDs — have state-appointed superintendents. All of them detailed steps toward certification or accountability to their boards for certification progress, and La Joya’s leader earned certification in May.
“My thought is if there was an elected board … I would be pushing for finding somebody with the qualifications to lead our school district,” said Maria Benzon, who was elected to the HISD board of trustees in November but does not hold power under the takeover.
[…]
David DeMatthews, a professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin, said Miles’ application raises questions about state-appointed leaders because waivers are supposed to be justified.
“If the state appoints a superintendent and then waives the certification requirement without a concrete compliance plan, the public may reasonably wonder whether the rules are being applied consistently,” DeMatthews said in an email.
The public, it would seem, can get stuffed. I mean, look, it’s not like having this certificate would make Mike Miles a better Superintendent. It almost certainly would not make any difference. It’s the principle of the thing, and the fact that nobody in any position to do anything about this – remember that the actual elected HISD Trustees have no power at this time – gives a damn about it. The irony of Mike Miles, who demands that students get tested all the damn time, being excused for no apparent reason from taking a test that all of his peers are required to pass is pretty rich. I cannot wait to see the back of this guy.
(Yes, I saw the Bluebonnet Learning story. I’ll have a post about it tomorrow.)