Hawkins spent two years as Texas’ top appellate attorney, but resigned soon after not signing onto Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2020 election challenge.

A takeover is meant to correct the course of struggling school districts. But it can become a fraught process since the district’s elected school board loses its decision-making power.

Student enrollment at Texas colleges topped 1.6 million as of fall 2025, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.