Michelle Williams has spent 26 years teaching Houston’s children.
Now, after being fired by Houston ISD’s appointed board of managers last month, the teacher and Houston Education Association president is taking her fight to Austin, as a candidate for Texas House District 127.
The HISD board voted unanimously to terminate Williams in April, overriding a February recommendation from a state-appointed independent hearing examiner who found that HISD had not provided sufficient evidence to justify her firing.
“Mike Miles is trying to cookie-cutter a model to where it applies to all students, but it cannot.”
Michelle Williams, president of the Houston Education Association
It was the second time an independent examiner had sided with Williams, and the second time the district pushed back.
Long-winded dispute
Williams says the termination stems from a conflict with Superintendent Mike Miles that dates back to the 2023-2024 school year, the first year of the state’s takeover of HISD, and that it was never really about her teaching.
“His issue with our organization was that I was on social media,” Williams told the Defender.
Miles had publicly called on unions to get off social media and visit schools instead.
Williams responded by sending him an email publicly accepting what she called his “very public invitation” and posting about it. Shortly after, administrators appeared in her classroom, and by March 2024, she had been removed from campus.
That first attempt ended with a hearing examiner recommending reinstatement. HISD complied, placing Williams at Benbrook Elementary for the 2025-26 school year.
A new principal arrived a week before school began and implemented what Williams describes as the district’s NES (New Education System) instructional model.
“Mike Miles is trying to cookie-cutter a model to where it applies to all students, but it cannot,” Williams said.
She argued the model fails students with Individualized Education Programs, students entitled to specialized instruction under state law, and emergent bilingual students who must be taught according to their English proficiency level under Chapter 74.4 of the Texas Education Code.
She filed two special education complaints with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and requested a transfer from Benbrook. The district refused.
Williams was placed on administrative leave in August 2025 after the new principal sought her termination.
The independent hearing examiner who presided over a two-day hearing in February found HISD had failed to establish adequate grounds for the firing.
But on the eve of the board’s vote, HISD submitted a brief asking members to reverse that recommendation, which Williams’ attorney, Giana Ortiz, publicly questioned. The board then voted 6-0 to terminate her.
HISD’s outside attorney, Ellen Spalding, argued that Williams had told her principal she would not implement the district’s curriculum as written. Spalding added that since Benbrook’s accountability rating dropped, it was required to adopt the district’s curriculum.
Williams and her legal team maintain that she implemented the curriculum in compliance with the law, particularly for her most vulnerable students.
Williams can appeal the board’s decision to the state education commissioner.
What’s next for Williams?
Parents deserve real choices in education—not systems that favor a few. Vouchers won't help everyone, and dismantling districts like Houston ISD limits options for most families. Let's fight for equitable education for ALL. #SupportPublicSchools #EducationMatters pic.twitter.com/kwfL7tSHqx
— Michelle Williams (@hea_president) May 7, 2026
Williams’ sight is already set further down the road.
She decided to run for the Texas House after last year’s school voucher hearings, she said, concluding that the real fight for public education had moved to the Capitol.
District 127, located near Intercontinental Airport and covering growing communities like Spring, has leaned Republican for years.
Williams is only the second Democrat to run there in 12 years. But she sees the district’s shifting demographics, with a growing Black and Latino population, as an opening.
Her platform centers on public education, flood mitigation in rapidly developing areas of Harris County, and reproductive rights. But her driving motivation, she says, runs deeper.
“I can no longer fight from the classroom because they are choking the life out of our school districts with legislation,” Williams said. “So the fight is in Austin.”
She invokes Frederick Douglass when asked what her candidacy means for Black students in Texas.
“Knowledge makes man unfit to be a slave,” she paraphrased, adding it is the reason behind every decision she makes in the classroom and on her campaign trail.
