Texas superintendents on Saturday said state takeovers of school districts — where democratically elected school boards are ousted and replaced with a state-appointed board of managers — is not a sustainable means to improve student learning.

Two of Texas’ largest school districts, Houston ISD, and most recently, Fort Worth ISD, are under a takeover, after five consecutive years of failing ratings at one of their campuses.

“Do I think that’s sustainable? Absolutely not. I don’t,” Martha Salazar-Zamora, the superintendent of Tomball ISD, said at The Texas Tribune Festival. “I don’t think that’s what local control is supposed to look like. I don’t actually think that’s what the public school experience is supposed to look like.”

About 40 miles north of Houston, Tomball ISD is a high-perfo

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