HOUSTON — The Texas Education Agency last week released a demographic breakdown of the applicants for the Houston ISD board of managers set to take over the district.
The deadline for applications was originally April 6, but has been extended to April 20 to allow more people to apply.
The agency said they received 374 applications by the April 6 deadline:
- 345 applicants live within HISD boundaries, which is a requirement for the position
- 238 applicants have worked as a teacher or for a school system
- 232 applicants are parents of current or former HISD students
- 136 applicants are former HISD students
The agency also broke down the percentage of applicants by race:
- 40% of applicants are African American
- 33% of applicants are white
- 10% of applicants are Hispanic
- 5% of applicants are Asian
- 12% of applicants said they were a race other than those listed above
Local Latino leaders said they're concerned by the low percentage of Hispanic applicants despite having a Hispanic student population of 62% in the district.
“Latinos are not as unified in the position whether or not TEA should take over and I think you have several political representatives how have supported the effort,” said David Contreras with the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Contreras also said communication issues have also impacted the number of Hispanic applicants.
“We haven’t gotten the word out to the community. We have not done a good job,” he said.
Additionally, applicants must be U.S. citizens, preventing many legal residents and DACA recipients from applying.
“I wanted to apply,” said Cezar Espinoza. “I went and looked at the onboarding but unfortunately, because I’m a DACA recipient, I wasn’t able to apply.
LULAC leaders said they are working on a plan of action in an effort to get more Latinos to apply for the board.