The Cost of Chaos at HISD: Parents, What Is Your Child Losing?

EDUCATION / HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

The Cost of Chaos at HISD: Parents, What Is Your Child Losing?

When a teacher disappears, a schedule changes, or a program ends, the students left behind deserve more than an explanation about enrollment.

By Gabriel F. Gonzales II | Historian. Educator.OPINION | October 25, 2026

Parents, I want you to picture something.

Your seventh-grader has struggled with reading since the school year began. For weeks, you have watched homework become an argument. Your child comes home frustrated and convinced that English is simply something they cannot do. Then a teacher notices what other people have missed. The teacher finds an approach that works, stays patient, and gives your child the courage to raise a hand.

One afternoon, that child walks through your front door with a smile and tells you they finally understood the lesson.

Now imagine that, a few weeks later, the teacher's position disappears. The class is reorganized. Your child is assigned to another teacher who might be every bit as capable, but who has never met them. The family starts over explaining what has worked, what has failed, and why their child was finally beginning to believe in themselves.

That is a hypothetical example, not an account of an identified HISD student. But it illustrates something missing from too much of the conversation about Houston Independent School District's staffing cuts: When you move an employee on a spreadsheet, a child may lose a hard-won relationship in a classroom.

And before anybody tells me this is simply the cost of doing business, I have one question: What happens to the children?

This Is Not Just a Story About Paychecks

I am a teacher. I understand how much a dependable paycheck matters to an educator's family. But teachers do not spend their days merely waiting for the next direct deposit. We plan lessons, learn names, notice changes in attitude, find out which students need encouragement, and do our best to make the classroom a place where young people can take risks without feeling foolish.

Sometimes a struggling reader will not admit they need help until they trust the adult standing in front of them. Sometimes the student who has been silent for a month finally asks a question. Sometimes the elective that looks expendable to a budget office is the one reason a teenager wants to come to school.

Teaching English has shown me there is a difference between delivering a lesson and reaching a student. Neither can be reduced to a staffing code. A replacement teacher can be excellent. They still need time to learn the children in the room.

The stress on educators matters, too. If you come to work wondering whether your assignment will disappear, whether the program you built will survive, or whether you will have to cross the city to start again, that uncertainty can make an already demanding job harder. I am not claiming that HISD caused any particular person's mental-health crisis. I am saying that stability and honest communication matter in schools, both for the adults and for the children relying on them.

And the children do not get a vote in those personnel decisions.

These Are Real Changes at Real Houston Schools

This is not simply a hypothetical concern. Public reporting based on letters sent to HISD families shows that staffing and budget adjustments have already affected students' schedules and programs.

Marshall Middle School ended its orchestra program, with students offered choices including band, dance, physical education, and art. Those may be worthwhile alternatives, but none automatically replaces the experience of continuing an instrument, rehearsing with an ensemble, or working toward a performance with the same instructor. Parents have a right to ask how the school weighed those losses. [1][2]

At Carnegie Vanguard High School, eliminating an English teaching position required changes to student schedules. The school said it worked to minimize disruption. I appreciate that effort. But any parent whose child's classes changed after the year began is entitled to ask what was done to preserve continuity and keep students on track. [2][3]

At Hogg Middle School, administrators described an approximately $215,000 budget reduction affecting journalism and an English-language-arts interventionist position. Importantly, the school said journalism would continue with another teacher and academic support would continue through other arrangements. We should not tell families those services vanished when the school said otherwise. We should ask whether the reorganized services are reaching the same students with the same consistency. [1][2]

At The Rice School, families received notices about changes to first-grade classroom assignments and the teacher assigned to an elementary STEM lab class. At Lamar High School, campus leaders outlined more than $500,000 in budget reductions affecting positions and programs, while warning families that some services would be reduced or phased out. These reports do not establish that every proposed change had taken effect or that every HISD school is in the same position. They do show that decisions made in offices are altering ordinary school days. [1][2]

If you are a parent reading this, the campus examples matter more than an argument over the proper public-relations term for a cut. Does your child's class still meet? Who teaches it now? Are students still getting reading help? Did the school explain the change before it happened, or after the new schedule was already in place?

That is where accountability begins.

What One Lost Teacher Can Mean to a Family

Go back to that seventh-grader who was finally making progress in English. Suppose the class is reorganized. The new teacher inherits multiple groups of students, each bringing different reading levels, assignments, and unfinished work. This is not a criticism of that teacher; it is an illustration of the challenge a transition can create.

A parent ought to be able to ask: Was the child's progress documented and communicated? Who will continue the intervention? Will the new teacher have time to learn which strategies helped? How will the school tell whether the student has lost ground over the next six weeks?

For a child who receives special-education services under an individualized education program, the questions can be particularly important. Federal regulations require the IEP to be accessible to teachers and service providers responsible for implementing it, and those staff members must understand their duties and the accommodations and supports the child needs. Staffing changes do not erase those obligations. That is a general legal requirement, not an allegation that HISD has violated it. [8]

Some children adapt quickly. Others do not. Some parents can leave work for a meeting with administrators; others cannot. Some families can pay for outside tutoring; many cannot. If a school changes the support a student depends on, those differences in family resources become part of the story as well.

A study by Matthew Ronfeldt and colleagues, examining elementary grades in New York City, found that higher teacher turnover was associated with lower student performance in reading and mathematics, including effects that went beyond the replacement teacher's individual effectiveness. That is not a measurement of HISD students or proof that each local staffing change harms achievement. It is a sound reason to take disruption seriously enough to measure it. [6]

I do not want parents to panic because one schedule changes. I want them to know what to ask, what to monitor, and whom to hold accountable if promised services do not materialize.

The Financial Problem Is Real. So Is the Responsibility.

HISD has a financial explanation that belongs in any responsible column. The district planned for roughly 4,000 fewer students in 2026–27 but encountered a substantially steeper enrollment decline. Superintendent Mike Miles told state senators the district expected about 160,000 students this year, compared with roughly 168,800 the prior year. Under Texas's school-finance system, fewer students can create substantial pressure on operating revenue. [3][4]

In a September 25 public statement, HISD said its estimated fund balance was about $730 million and pointed to reduced central-office spending, increased teacher compensation, and the need to keep expenditures aligned with available resources. Those are meaningful arguments. Savings do not provide a permanent solution to recurring costs, and school systems must sometimes make difficult adjustments. [5]

But an explanation for a cut is not the same as an explanation for what happens afterward. If the enrollment forecast missed by thousands, what is the district doing differently? How much advance warning did affected families receive? What alternatives did campus leaders evaluate? How will HISD measure whether students still receive the education and support they were promised?

The district says it is protecting instruction. Parents deserve to see how that promise works in the actual school day, not merely hear it in a statement.

People Are Being Moved or Let Go. Hiring Notices Are Still Posted.

The Houston Chronicle reported on October 20 that HISD records showed 160 employees terminated as of October 3, with another 12 resigning after facing termination. Another 200 employees had been reassigned, sometimes to other roles at their campuses and sometimes elsewhere. Reassignment is not the same as job loss. The distinction matters, even though both can disrupt relationships between teachers and students. [3]

HISD's official careers website also lists a November 4 virtual “Teach in HISD” information session and a November 12 résumé-and-interview workshop. That is a fact, not a social-media rumor. It does not, by itself, prove that the district fired employees from positions it was simultaneously trying to fill. Schools can have genuine vacancies in one subject while needing fewer staff members elsewhere; credentials and campus needs matter. [7]

Still, the public question is reasonable: When positions disappear, how effectively does the district connect qualified, displaced educators with suitable openings? And where an educator cannot be reassigned, what plan protects continuity for the students left behind?

Parents are not asking for a personnel file or anyone's confidential employment details. They are asking to understand the effect of decisions made in a public school system.

Five Questions I Would Ask If My Child Were Affected

Who is teaching my child now? If a teacher or schedule changes, ask for the new teacher's name, a current syllabus, and how progress information will be transferred.

What has changed in the school day? Ask whether class size, instructional time, intervention periods, electives, or access to counselors and specialists have changed. Do not settle for a generic assurance if your child's situation is specific.

If a program was cut, what is the actual alternative? If your child lost orchestra, journalism, or another elective, ask about available choices and whether any pathway exists to continue the interest or skill they were developing.

If my child receives specialized help, who is responsible for continuing it? Parents should ask who is delivering reading interventions, accommodations, or IEP services and how the school will track whether they are happening. [8]

When will somebody check whether the transition worked? Ask for a follow-up date, an academic-progress measure, and a person you can contact if your child begins falling behind.

Those are not partisan questions. They are not attacks on every principal or teacher trying to make a difficult situation work. They are the questions of a mother, father, or caregiver who wants to know what is happening to their child.

I also want HISD leaders to hear what not every parent has the luxury to do. Not every family can take a Tuesday morning off to stand outside a school office. Not every parent knows how to decode an intervention plan. Information should be clear, accessible, and available without requiring a public argument on Facebook.

Parents Should Not Have to Shout to Be Heard

I keep coming back to the same image: a student walking into a classroom expecting to see a familiar teacher, only to discover that the adults have made another change. Maybe the transition goes smoothly. I hope it does. But hope is not a transition plan, and a press release is not proof of student progress.

There is nothing wrong with balancing a budget. There is something incomplete about declaring the job done before measuring what that balance meant for children. A school district is not merely an employer, and children are not incidental customers of a human-resources process. They are the reason the institution exists.

I want responsible finances. I want excellent educators to have stable places to teach. I want parents to have straightforward answers. Above all, I want children to have the chance to keep learning even when the adults responsible for their schools face difficult decisions.

So yes, tell us how many positions were eliminated. Tell us how many people were reassigned. Tell us how much money was saved. Then answer the question that matters most to the parents standing at the school door:

What did my child lose, what has been put in place to help, and how will you prove that it is working?

Because before we congratulate ourselves over a balanced spreadsheet, somebody needs to think about the children.

Sources & Notes

Editorial disclosure: This is a bylined opinion column based on attributed public reporting, HISD statements, and published research. The seventh-grade classroom example is hypothetical; it does not depict an identified student or claim a firsthand interview. The research is not an estimate of HISD's current student outcomes. No personal medical stories are included.

[1] Rilwan Balogun, “HISD cuts hit campuses across Houston as schools begin notifying families of staffing and program changes,” KPRC 2, September 29, 2026. https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/09/29/hisd-cuts-hit-campuses-across-houston-as-schools-begin-notifying-families-of-staffing-and-program-changes/

[2] Nusaiba Mizan, “Which HISD schools are losing staff and programs due to enrollment decline? Here’s a list so far,” Houston Chronicle, updated October 1, 2026. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/hisd/article/staff-leveling-reassignments-continue-22449847.php

[3] Nusaiba Mizan, “HISD cut or moved 360 employees as schools lost more students than expected this year,” Houston Chronicle, October 20, 2026. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/hisd/article/termination-reassignment-leveling-enrollment-22483628.php

[4] Sneha Dey, “Houston ISD directs schools to cut staff and slash spending amid higher than expected enrollment losses,” The Texas Tribune, September 23, 2026. https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/23/houston-cuts-takeover-mike-miles-layoff-cuts/

[5] Houston ISD, “Maintaining Strong Financial Position Amid Changing Revenue and Enrollment,” September 25, 2026. https://hisdnow.houstonisd.org/p/~board/for-the-record/post/maintaining-strong-financial-position-amid-changing-revenue-and-enrollment

[6] Matthew Ronfeldt, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff, “How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 17176 (2011); published in American Educational Research Journal 50, no. 1 (2013): 4–36. https://www.nber.org/papers/w17176

[7] Houston Independent School District, “Employees & Careers,” official recruitment calendar, accessed October 25, 2026. https://www.houstonisd.org/employees-careers

[8] U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR § 300.323(d), “Accessibility of child’s IEP to teachers and others.” https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/d/300.323/d