Why Houston's urban public schools are losing students

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Hello Houston,

State-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles expects Houston ISD to soon exit a state-mandated plan aimed at reducing its abuse of committees to award high school diplomas to students who failed state exams.

The Texas Education Agency ordered the plan because some HISD high schools were relying on individual graduation committees to boost their graduation rates. Now preliminary data shows that 4.7% of students in the Class of 2025 graduated through committee overrides, which would be the district’s lowest rate of committee use in a decade. Find out how HISD curbed the abuse and its next steps from Megan Menchaca's latest report here.

Have questions for Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath? Then join the Houston Chronicle's virtual Q&A with him on Oct. 22 at noon, hosted by senior columnist Lisa Falkenberg. Be sure to RSVP here.

Must-reads:

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Houston is the poorest big city in the U.S. How does that affect students and schools?

Nusaiba Mizan, Education reporter

Nusaiba.Mizan@houstonchronicle.com

Parents walk their children to Aldine ISD’s Hinojosa EC/Pre-K/K School for the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024 in Houston.

Photo by: Staff photographer

Why Houston's urban public schools are losing students

A lot of major urban school districts in the Houston area are struggling with enrollment, and the reasons behind the drop may be more complex than you think. The Chronicle's Sam González Kelly, Elizabeth Sander and Anastasia Goodwin teamed up for this deep-dive into how declining birth rates, plus the growing school choice movement and a population boom in the suburbs, all mean that our region's core districts like Houston, Alief and Aldine ISDs are waging an uphill battle to attract students.

Consider this: The birth rate in Harris County peaked in 2015, when over 73,000 children were born. But by 2024, it fell by 10% even as the county's population increased. Harris County has relied almost entirely on international migration to fuel its growth.

What does it all mean for school districts? The sheer number of school-age children is shrinking, creating more competition for students, and the money that follows them. Check out the full report here and see which districts have lost the most students the interactive map.

Inside the Reporter's Notebook

HISD receives services from a Los Angeles-based communications firm called Bryson Gillette, but it is unclear who is paying the firm and how much its services cost taxpayers.

HISD and Bryson Gillette spokespeople did not respond to multiple requests for comment over phone and email. We do know that the district allocated $1,350,305 for consulting services in its Chief of Public Affairs and Communications department budget for fiscal year 2025.

Bryson Gillette's services include answering media inquiries and the district's logo redesign. Starting September 2024, the Houston Chronicle has requested invoices, agreements for services, and contracts pertaining to the firm. The district responded that it did not possess information responsive to these requests. The Chronicle also requested a cost breakdown for the rebranding and logo redesign, and the district said it did not possess information responsive to the request.

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