Houston Mayor John Whitmire meets with TEA chief Mike Morath

Whitmire met with Morath to share “his views on the importance of HISD to the City of Houston and pledged that he and his new Education Advisor would assist the Houston Independent School District in any way possible,” according to mayor’s office spokesperson Mary Benton.

The mayor’s office did not divulge further details about the conversation, and said that Whitmire’s education adviser had not yet been named. The Texas Education Agency did not return a request for comment.

While Houston’s mayor has no formal authority over its school district, the relationship between mayor and superintendent has come under scrutiny as the city’s Democratic leaders have fought against the takeover of its school system by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and his education commissioner, Morath. Morath, a former Dallas ISD trustee, is responsible for appointing former Dallas ISD Superintendent Mike Miles to HISD’s top post in June. 

Former Mayor Sylvester Turner, a vocal supporter of former HISD Superintendent Millard House II, gave Miles the cold shoulder upon his arrival in Houston, regularly speaking out against Miles’ controversial reforms and ignoring an invitation to tour one of his New Education System schools, which underwent the most drastic overhauls.

Whitmire met with both Morath and Miles during his campaign for mayor and said he would lend whatever assistance was needed to Miles and his administration.

“The bottom line is the takeover has taken place, and it’s shameful to politicize that, politicize children’s education,” Whitmire said in November. “Let’s support the students, support the administration that has got the children’s best interests at heart, and go forward.”

Miles called to congratulate Whitmire on his victory, but the two have not spoken since Whitmire took office on Jan. 1, Whitmire said. HISD officials said they are currently working to arrange a longer sit-down with the new mayor. 

“We congratulate Mayor Whitmire and look forward to working with him and his team to improve student outcomes and schools in this great city,” Miles said in a statement. 

Robert Sanborn, president and CEO of the education policy nonprofit Children at Risk, said that Whitmire’s pragmatic approach toward relations with the TEA and the HISD leaders they appointed is a healthy step in the right direction for Houston children, but that Whitmire’s ultimate goal should be to expedite HISD’s return to local control.

“When you see Mayor Whitmire reaching out to them, it’s going to make a lot of people angry but it’s also the reality of what is happening, and to just abandon (HISD) and say ‘we don’t want them here so I’m not going to meet with them’ is probably not the right move,” Sanborn said. “However, the mayor’s clear message needs to be ‘let’s move it along, let’s stop with the takeover and move to get our own superintendent and our own board in there.'”

Multiple mayoral candidates, including runoff opponent U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, attacked Whitmire for his involvement in the politically unpopular takeover throughout the race. As a state senator, Whitmire, who ran as a moderate Democrat, voted for the 2015 legislation that ultimately allowed the state to assume control of HISD last spring. 

Whitmire filed an eleventh-hour bill, which ultimately failed, in March to stave off the takeover, but otherwise offered fewer public comments about the situation than Jackson Lee, whose outspokenness on the issue earned her the endorsement of the Houston Federation of Teachers.

The mayor has repeatedly pointed out that his fellow Harris County representatives in the Texas Legislature, including Turner, at the time, all voted for the 2015 bill as well — those representatives have all since expressed regret for their vote or, in Turner’s case, claimed they were unaware of the amendment that allowed for the takeover.