At this month's Women's Policy Forum monthly luncheon, attendees gathered to hear a compelling presentation by Andrew R. Hairston, J.D., a civil rights lawyer and policy advocate from Texas Appleseed.

His presentation, titled "Student Engagement & School Takeovers in Texas in 2026," shed light on the systemic challenges facing the Texas public education system, the consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline, and the growing trend of state-ordered district takeovers.

The Landscape of Texas Public Education

Texas public school enrollment surpasses 5.5 million students across more than one thousand independent school districts. Over the last decade, student enrollment has climbed by 8.7%, with growth occurring across every racial demographic except for white children.

Despite this growth, Hairston highlighted several critical challenges currently impacting public schools:

• A long-standing legacy of inequitable school funding that traces back to historical segregation and court battles like San Antonio v. Rodriguez.

• Recent legislative mandates, including the HB 3 requirement for armed security officers and the return to zero-tolerance policies authorized by HB 6.

• Ongoing, unaddressed pandemic aftermath affecting youth mental health.

The School-to-Prison Pipeline and Policing A central focus of the presentation was the school-to-prison pipeline, a process where exclusionary discipline—such as suspensions, expulsions, and alternative placements—alongside heavy school policing pushes students directly into contact with the criminal legal system . Hairston noted that these practices disproportionately affect Black, Brown, LGBTQ, and disabled youth.

Data shared during the presentation challenged the efficacy of school policing, noting a lack of empirical evidence that police presence prevents mass shootings, while pointing out that multi-million dollar school policing budgets often eclipse spending on recommended ratios of school counselors .

The Reality of State Takeovers

The presentation also examined the rise of state takeovers by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), focusing on the 2023 Houston ISD takeover—which has now been extended to 2027—and subsequent interventions targeting districts serving high numbers of students of color and economically disadvantaged populations, such as Beaumont and Fort Worth . Hairston explained that these takeovers replace locally elected leadership with undemocratically appointed boards of managers, overriding local community governance for years at a time . To further document these impacts, Texas Appleseed is co-authoring a comprehensive report on the Houston ISD takeover due for release in Fall 2026 .

A Path Forward for Education Justice

Framing today’s struggles as a continuation of historical Civil Rights organizing and the unmet promises of Brown v. Board of Education, Hairston concluded with specific corrective actions to build an equitable education system:

• Ending school policing and redirecting those multi-million dollar budgets to student support services.

• Replacing zero-tolerance frameworks with restorative and transformative justice programs.

• Implementing equitable public school funding models.

• Centering the voices of Black children and historically underserved youth in K-12 policy decisions.

• Preserving and strengthening democratic, local governance over neighborhood public schools.

Mr. Hariston can be reached at 737-900-9437 or ahairston @ texasappleseed.org