Governor-Elect Gina Hinojosa Says She Will Fire the TEA Chief on Day One — and Give Houston ISD Back to Houston
Mike Morath's term as Texas education commissioner expires nine days before Gina Hinojosa takes office, which makes her day-one firing pledge a question of timing and Senate votes. For Houston, the bigger promise is the one about its school district.
Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has made replacing Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath one of the first orders of business of her administration. 'In case you have not heard, on day one, I will fire Mike Morath,' Hinojosa told supporters during her victory speech on election night, drawing cheers from the crowd.
The calendar complicates the pledge. Morath, appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, has led the Texas Education Agency since January 2016, and his current term expires on Jan. 10 — nine days before Hinojosa takes office on Jan. 19. That timing means she could appoint a replacement rather than formally fire him, and she said Thursday that her transition team is already interviewing candidates. Any nominee needs confirmation from the Texas Senate, where Republicans kept their majority. A TEA spokesperson told reporters that Morath told a group of school leaders he was committed to 'ensuring a smooth and successful transition for the incoming education commissioner.'
The agency Morath leads oversees a public education system serving roughly 5.5 million students. It distributes state and federal education funding, oversees standardized testing and assigns the A-F accountability ratings Hinojosa has pledged to pause, and it holds the authority to intervene in struggling districts — including replacing locally elected school boards with state-appointed managers.
Houston knows that authority firsthand. In 2023, the TEA replaced Houston ISD's elected school board and superintendent with state-appointed leaders, citing years of poor academic performance; supporters point to improved ratings, while critics argue the state stripped parents and communities of a say in their schools. Hinojosa, a former Austin school board president, has sided with the critics and pledged to return the district to local control. 'I will give the school district back to the people of Houston,' she said in a July interview with the Houston Press.
What a new commissioner cannot do alone is also part of the record: the takeover authority and the accountability system are established by state law, and changing those laws requires the Legislature — where Democrats won the Texas House and Republicans held the Senate. Hinojosa's wider education agenda, as she has stated it, includes increasing public school funding, raising teacher pay and opposing the state's new private school voucher program.
