I serve on Houston ISD’s District Advisory Committee, or DAC, as an elected teacher representative. The committee is supposed to provide guidance on educational goals, instructional programs, and district priorities. It is one of the places where educators and community members should be able to raise concerns and help shape the district’s direction.
The DAC is advisory, not authoritative. It does not make the final decisions. But that makes meaningful discussion more important, not less. If members cannot influence decisions directly, they should at least have a genuine opportunity to question proposals, debate priorities, and offer recommendations that leadership takes seriously.
At a recent meeting, members received updates on last year’s working groups, a presentation from Family and Community Engagement, and information about parent-teacher organizations. When an appointed member raised the need for greater transparency, district staff quickly shut down the discussion.
After nearly two hours of presentations, the DAC liaison offered members five to ten minutes to share a “bright idea.”
Five to ten minutes. After nearly two hours of being talked at.
Apparently, there was plenty of time to talk at the committee, but not much time to listen to it.
Why other voices are needed
Houston ISD is losing students, cutting staff, struggling with its finances and facing questions about teacher retention. Yet district leadership continues pushing forward while treating criticism as an obstacle rather than an opportunity to change course.
In October 2023, then new Superintendent Mike Miles compared himself to the captain of the Titanic, complaining that while he warned people about an iceberg, they worried about breakfast and how quickly he was turning the wheel.
Three years later, HISD is still steaming ahead. The question is whether anyone at the helm is listening.
The numbers are difficult to ignore. According to a Texas Tribune investigation, HISD recorded a $311 million budget shortfall in 2024-25, while teacher turnover reached 33 percent in 2025-26, nearly twice the state average. During the first three years of the state takeover, the district lost roughly 21,000 students, costing an estimated $190 million in state funding.
The consequences are becoming harder to disguise. The Houston Chronicle reported that HISD recently cut or reassigned at least 360 employees after enrollment fell by nearly 10,000 students compared with the previous September, far exceeding the district’s original projection.
Then there is the New Education System, or NES, the centerpiece of Miles’s overhaul. The Texas Tribune reported that adopting the model can cost approximately $700,000 per campus in its first year, with additional per-student costs in subsequent years.
HISD can point to academic gains. But a school system cannot run on test scores alone. It also needs experienced teachers, sustainable finances, and families who trust the district enough to stay.
A captain can insist the ship is making good time. That matters little if passengers keep disembarking and the crew keeps abandoning ship.
An advisory committee that isn’t advising
The DAC is supposed to be a channel for community input. When difficult questions are brushed aside and meaningful discussion is squeezed into the final minutes, the committee risks becoming a performance of public engagement rather than an instrument of it.
The committee’s history raises further questions. After voters rejected HISD’s $4.4 billion bond proposal in November 2024, two appointed DAC members who spoke out were replaced. I cannot speak to every consideration behind those decisions, and the sequence alone does not establish why the replacements occurred. But it raises a legitimate question: How much room is there for dissent in a committee that is supposed to offer advice?
A district that welcomes only agreeable feedback is not really seeking advice. It is seeking approval.
If the people charged with advising district leadership cannot openly question its direction, what purpose does the committee serve?
The state takeover concentrated power in appointed leadership. That makes accountability and public input more important, not less. When enrollment falls, budgets tighten, and experienced teachers leave, HISD needs honest discussion about what is working, what is failing, and what needs to change.
Instead, too often, the message seems to be: Trust the captain. Ignore the noise. Please hold all questions until after the presentation.
But HISD is not a private cruise. It belongs to Houston’s students, families, educators, and taxpayers. They have every right to ask where the district is headed, how their money is being spent, and what happens if the current course fails.
The point is not that every decision made under the takeover has failed or that academic outcomes should be ignored. The point is that no school system should be insulated from scrutiny, especially when the consequences affect thousands of children, families, and educators.
A ship in trouble does not need a captain who dismisses every warning as an insult. It needs leadership willing to look at the water coming over the sides, listen to the crew, and change course when the evidence demands it.
Miles once invoked the Titanic to complain about people questioning his course. The irony is hard to miss. Paul McCartney’s song “Despite Repeated Warnings” tells the story of a captain who ignores warnings that his ship is headed for disaster. For HISD, the title alone says plenty.
HISD’s students and families are not spectators watching a captain prove a point. They are the people who will live with the consequences.
The iceberg is in plain sight.
The question is whether anyone at the helm intends to turn.
As voters head to the polls in this week and next, they should consider where candidates stand on public education and the state takeover of HISD. The Houston Federation of Teachers has endorsed candidates who support ending harmful state takeovers and pursuing a better future for public education across Texas, with a commitment to ensuring every student has access to the quality education they deserve. Those candidates include Gina Hinojosa for governor. Voters can find official election information at HarrisVotes.com.
Brad Wray is a teacher in the Houston ISD.