‘We need all hands on deck.’ How could lawmakers help the Fort Worth school district?
The Fort Worth school district’s “unacceptable” student achievement has the attention of state lawmakers, who say action needs to be taken for improvement.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and other leaders sent a letter to district leadership on Tuesday, demanding better academic performance. The letter follows the release of state test scores that show the district lags other large urban districts.
The “unacceptable” results on state tests narrow students’ opportunities and have long-term workforce, economic development, poverty and public health consequences, Parker wrote.
State Rep. Craig Goldman, a Fort Worth Republican whose district includes part of the school district, said he hopes the letter serves as a wake-up call.
“It’s everyone’s role to pitch in and make sure that happens,” he said.
Goldman is running for Congress and will not return to the Texas Legislature when it meets in January.
State Sen. Kelly Hancock said he was thrilled to see the letter. He said he’s known for years that Fort Worth schools were under performing.
“Until you acknowledge you have a problem, you typically don’t have a chance of correcting or addressing those problems,” said Hancock, a North Richland Hills Republican who represents part of the district.
It’s also something Parker has known.
“This is not a finger-pointing,” Parker said. “It’s not one person’s problem. It’s not anyone’s fault, but let’s just put it aside and fix it. And I don’t know how else to do that without ripping the Band-Aid off, which is why I spoke on Tuesday.”
In a statement, board President Roxanne Martinez said the district would work with the city to address its challenges.
“Together, we can rise to the challenges before us and strengthen our public education system for the betterment of our students, families, and community,” Martinez said.
Superintendent Angélica Ramsey acknowledged in a statement that the district is “not where we want to be with student achievement” and that she’s committed to making Fort Worth an “outstanding” district.
“We firmly believe that Fort Worth’s success is intrinsically linked to the success of our schools,” Ramsey said. “To truly achieve this, we must move beyond simple engagement and actively work together, recognizing that we cannot do it alone. Our district remains laser-focused on our core mission: delivering excellent Tier one instruction so that all students can reach their highest potential. This mission drives every decision we make.”
A review of district leadership
The district is going to have to take “very, very bold, stark action” to turn the situation around, said Sen. Phil King, a Weatherford Republican whose legislative district includes part of the Fort Worth school district. King noted that he has discussed the district’s test results with Education Commissioner Mike Morath.
A public review of district leadership is needed, King said.
“In any organization, when you have this level of failure, then you have to look at the top,” King said. “You have to look at the board of directors, in this case trustees. You have to look at the superintendent and the ... senior positions in that organization.”
King didn’t go as far as calling for any district leaders to step down.
Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican who also represents a portion of the school district, said Ramsey needs to establish goals for the district that she and the district’s administration will be held accountable.
“That comes down to the board,” he said. “The board has to hold her feet to the fire.”
Goldman said if elected he would like to ask the Department of Education what it could do to help educate students in his district. Goldman said he’s called for eliminating the department on the campaign trail.
“I’m afraid the answer is not going to be the one I’m looking for,” he said — hence his call for the department’s elimination, he added.
It’s important that elected officials who represent school districts be given the autonomy to carry out their duties, said State Rep. Nicole Collier, a Fort Worth Democrat whose legislative district spans part of the district.
But it’s also up to the state to fully fund schools, she said.
“The state has not fulfilled that,” she said. “They’re not getting sufficient dollars for the new enrollment. But that doesn’t mean — just because they didn’t get the money, they still have a duty to provide a quality education for the students.”
Collier said she’s not giving the Fort Worth school district a pass. There are challenges within the district that need to be and can be addressed with existing resources, she said.
But it’s also important to remember that there are things that are out of a district’s control that will impact a student’s performance — factors like abuse, neglect, hunger or a family member who is unemployed or underemployed, Collier said.
“I think that the state can do more in addressing or identifying those needs and provide resources to help offset some of those negative factors,” Collier said, offering examples like housing, increased mental health support and access to employment opportunities.
School funding and vouchers
Rep. Ramon Romero, Jr., a Fort Worth Democrat representing part of the district, said districts have varied in their performance post pandemic and that it’s difficult to read into the numbers because each different is district.
But what is clear is that the Legislature could be doing more, Romero said. Texas lags in per student funding and billions are being held “hostage” that districts could have used, he said.
During the last legislative session Democrats and some Republicans, as well as the House and Senate, were at odds over whether to pass education savings accounts, a priority of Gov. Greg Abbott. The voucher-like program would let parents use state dollars for their child’s private education. Ultimately, proposals for school vouchers and increased school funding, including teacher pay raises, didn’t make it to Abbott’s desk.
Texas AFT in May called on Gov. Abbott to release more than $4 billion that wasn’t distributed to schools when lawmakers last met.
“I just think that the state needs to stop playing games with the privatization of schools,” Romero said, adding that public school students are “listening to us when we tell them that they’re in a bad school.”
Money isn’t the only answer but would make a big difference in teacher retention and in supporting students’ learning options, Romero said.
“How many teachers did we lose because they felt like the state was not supporting them?” Romero said. Soon adding, “We need to stop pointing fingers at someone else, and say ‘What are we doing?’ And the state is grossly at fault in my opinion.”
Hancock doesn’t think the Fort Worth school district’s performance is tied to state funding levels.
“You can see districts that get less per student achieving greater things,” Hancock said. “And you can see that within Tarrant County. So you can’t use funding as an excuse for poor performance.”
There’s a need for support from the community to boost achievement, Goldman said, noting that the state “does plenty” to help districts, including funding them millions each year.
“Yes, money is an important part of it, and yes, I’d love to see teachers get paid a lot more,” Goldman said. “But if we don’t have buy in from parents on making sure their kids are educated or a community in making sure that their schools are performing well, no matter how much money the state gives, you’re never going to be able to make improvements.”
King thinks Fort Worth’s performance is an example of why “school choice” is needed, advocating for Education Savings Accounts. He also said he supports teacher pay raises from the Legislature.
“Whatever is going on in Fort Worth ISD right now is not going to be corrected overnight,” King said. “Struggles like this take years to improve, and I think that makes school choice an even more important option, because parents who are in failing schools or whose kids are just not working out right, for whatever reason, in their particular setting, those parents need to have the option of moving their child to another school.”
Geren, who opposed Education Savings Accounts in the House last time lawmakers met in Austin, doesn’t think the achievement scores will bolster the voucher push.
“You take one failing school, one failing high school in Fort Worth — a D or an F school — there’s not enough money to take all those kids out and put them somewhere, if they wanted to go, put them somewhere that might be higher achieving outside the public school system,” Geren said, later adding, “If you only take the cream of the crop out of those schools, then you’re just going to have a poorer performing schools than you have today.”
A Fort Worth ISD takeover?
According to state law, if a campus has an “unacceptable performance rating for five consecutive school years” the the education commissioner must close the campus or appoint a board of managers to govern the district.
Schools in the Fort Worth school district have not met that threshold. The latest ratings in Texas have not been released because of a court challenge.
The state has taken over the Houston school district. Parker highlighted the Houston and Dallas districts in her letter for improving achievement in different ways.
“I don’t think intervention is right for the city of Fort Worth,” Parker said, adding, “I believe we can avoid takeover that is best for our families and our city, and I think we can do this in a community led model, similar to what they’ve done in Dallas ISD.”
The takeover in Houston has caused pain among communities and teacher groups, Romero said.
“You can point to a test and say that, ‘well, look it’s succeeding,’ but I think if you ask the people on the ground, there not happy about the way it’s gone down,” Romero said.
Romero appreciates Dallas’ model, which he said focuses on academies and “taking kids that were doing really well and creating public schools within their system to focus in on those kids that were really performing at a high level.”
Everybody can do more to help students, Romero said.
“What I heard by the mayor’s point is, we need all hands on deck,” he said. “I’m ready to have the state do their part.”
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker on Legislative fixes
The main feedback Parker hears from community members around education, as it pertains to the Legislature, is questions about where education funding is going, concerns about deficits across school districts, and concern or excitement — depending on who you ask — over the potential of school vouchers.
“I very much feel ... that we’ve got to put our politics aside and admit to ourselves that what we currently see in public education is not working.”
Even the highest performing districts can do better, she said.
“I’m not prescriptive in what I’m asking them to do — you have to do X, Y and Z,” Parker said. “I think we just need more partnership to understand that every district is different and unique.”
Districts complain that they don’t see enough funding, Parker said.
“However, I think before it’s fair for us to go to the Legislature and ask for more money, we really have to get our own house in order,” Parker said. “And that’s true for every district. It’s particularly right now with Fort Worth ISD.”
Parker said she would support an education savings account proposal from lawmakers, but she also supports full funding and better better support for public schools.
“I try to put myself in the shoes of some of moms and dads I have personally gotten to know and talk to that don’t understand what vouchers or school choice is or anything, ” Parker said. “They just know that their neighborhood school is failing, or they just know that their neighborhood school is not right for their child.”
Parker called it “unfathomable” that in Texas, one of the largest economies in the world, “a family can only receive a high quality education if they have the resources to provide that for their child.”
That’s where the argument for school choice comes in, she said — that a parent should be able to put their child in the school where they’re best suited.
On the flip side, Parker said, there’s the argument that if that same money and resources went toward a failing school, school choice wouldn’t be needed.
“But that kid only gets one chance, one chance at third grade,” Parker said. “So what are we going to do as a community to rally around families differently? You can do both at the same time. You can offer families a better opportunity for their child, at the same time you also lift up your public ISDs, your traditional public schools, and make sure that they are successful and focus on student achievement and outcomes.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2024 at 4:46 PM.
