The attack of the children. That’s how it started Thursday night and it was like watching a sci-fi horror film when some cute little alien buggers suddenly bare their teeth and try to take a chomp out of the human.
The object of their wrath? Houston ISD Superintendent Mile Miles who sat there through most of the 190 public speakers who came to complain about the dismantling of libraries, who did or did not want Wharton and Helms with their dual language programs to become magnet schools, and relaying even more reports of teachers saying they are planning to leave the district, tired of what they see as a hostile, bullying workplace.
It was another lengthy and packed meeting (the overflow room was filled as well) in which, per usual, complaints about the New Education System with its timed tests and prescribed coursework from Central Office that Miles has brought to HISD. In fact it went on so long (till after midnight) that some of those in it for the long haul ordered in pizza.
"My name is Enrique [Ubiera] and I am in the fifth grade. Please fire Superintendent Miles. Not one decision he has made has been good. He is too focused on test scores but he has never done anything effective about them. You can't magically learn by taking the same test over and over again. We need to actually do something about the problem. Maybe one reason for the failure is the low budget for most schools. Giving them 12 percent less (projected budget cuts for non-NES school next year) would really do something. Something bad."