Those who have attended a Houston ISD school board meeting in the past few months might think Gina Hinojosa is running for a trustee position by the way that speakers reference the importance of her campaign to the future of the district and its students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At a press conference Tuesday at Pyburn\u2019s Farm Fresh Foods in Houston, Hinojosa confirmed that she is, in fact, seeking to unseat three-term Gov. Greg Abbott in November, and she\u2019s absolutely campaigning on education issues. It\u2019s the reason she got into politics, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Austin Democrat and daughter of former Cameron County Judge and longtime Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa was elected to the Austin ISD school board in 2012. She says she ran for office because state budget cuts threatened to close her son\u2019s elementary school and she was motivated to protect public education. She was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During her time in office, Hinojosa has been one of the most outspoken critics of the state takeover of HISD, which occurred in 2023 in an effort to raise student test scores. TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, an Abbott appointee, installed Mike Miles as superintendent. The district is governed by an state-appointed board of managers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Hinojosa told the Houston Press that Morath should be polishing up his resume.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m governor, I will fire Mike Morath and put an educator in the position of Texas Education Agency commissioner,\u201d she said. \u201cI will give the school district back to the people of Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n
The candidate has proposed eliminating state takeovers, saying they undermine local democracy. Since the early 1990s, the TEA has taken over roughly 15 school districts, but the pace has accelerated in recent years after lawmakers expanded the agency\u2019s authority in 2015 and 2017. Eight districts are currently governed by state-appointed boards of managers, the highest number in recent history.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouston is a community that has fought long and hard for its neighborhood public schools and Greg Abbott has taken that control away from communities,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cEven when our schools are struggling, it is never the right answer to take schools away from their parents and community who know best, who have skin in the game in how students achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hinojosa also doesn\u2019t like Miles\u2019 controversial New Education System, saying it has centralized control and reduced input from educators and families. NES schools require scripted lessons from the central office that critics say can\u2019t be adapted to individual students\u2019 needs, and daily timed quizzes.<\/p>\n
Last month, Hinojosa launched Team Texas Public Schools<\/a>, a bipartisan organizing program designed to coach and engage parents, teachers, and administrators to fight school closures across the state. The initiative includes plans to restore local control to districts under a state takeover, ending A-F accountability ratings in their current form and opposing the private school voucher<\/a> expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa talks to voters at a Houston grocery store on Tuesday. Credit: April Towery<\/p>\n