CHEERS
Cheers to Houston Independent School District and Superintendent Mike Miles: “Three years into Texas’ takeover of the district, one of its most troubled schools has risen from seven consecutive F ratings to its first-ever A,” reports Naaz Modan. And cheers, too, to Texas’s A–F system, which allows high-poverty and struggling schools to get credit for rapid student growth by ignoring their proficiency rates.
JEERS
Ohio has supported interdistrict open enrollment since the late 80s, allowing kids the opportunity to seek out better public schools. Now, changes to the state funding model under the “Fair School Funding Plan” are reducing the money available to districts receiving students from outside their attendance boundaries. April Helms and Kelli Weir report on how districts are blaming the change for their decisions to end their open enrollment programs, and charging tuition for current students hoping to stay in their schools.
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation. Click here to subscribe for sharp analysis of the week’s biggest K–12 debates, curated commentary from across the ed-policy world, and lively discussion—including reader reactions and pushback.
