As her fifth-grade daughter wraps up her final year at Condit Elementary School, Hina Mannan has spent several months researching where to send her for middle school.
Mannan briefly considered taking her child out of Houston ISD and enrolling her in a private school for the upcoming school year, touring three nearby campuses. But after completing all her tours and research, she ultimately concluded that the state’s largest public school district has “the best middle schools out there” for her daughter.
Despite an accelerating student enrollment decline, HISD reported that the total number of families applying to its internal K-12 school choice process increased by 3% this year. More than 16,500 families, including Mannan, applied to attend the district’s magnet schools or specialty programs for the 2026-27 school year…