HISD Proposals and William Fitzsimmons: Friday’s Show (June 12, 2015)

In the past few weeks, the Houston Independent School District's administration has announced some planned changes, including scaling back student testing next year. HISD Superintendent Terry Grier also initially proposed to end the district's controversial performance bonus system, but he went back on that proposal earlier this week. Next week, the HISD board will review and vote on Superintendent Grier's nearly $2 billion budget proposal for the upcoming school year.

On this edition of Houston Matters, we discuss the budget, testing and other developments for the largest public school system in Texas with Houston Chronicle Education reporter Ericka Mellon. Then, Maggie Martin talks with Zeph Capo, President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, and Ruth Kravetz, co-founder of Community Voices for Public Education.

Also this hour: Each Friday, our rotating panel of “non-experts” comes together to consider The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the week’s news. This week’s panel of non-experts is comprised of: Aurora Losada, editor of La Voz de Houston; Joe Holley, “Native Texan” columnist for the Houston Chronicle; and Marcus Davis, owner of The Breakfast Klub restaurant and host of Sunday Morning Live on Majic 102.1.

Plus: Michael Hagerty visits with singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons, who performs Saturday at Fitzgerald's in The Heights.