A new Fort Worth political action committee looks to marshal support for literacy
A new Fort Worth political action committee seeks to make sure candidates for elected office have literacy at the top of their priorities lists, whether they’re running for school positions or not.
A group of education advocates and city, county and business leaders announced the launch of Fort Worth Students First at a news conference Friday afternoon.
Historically, political action committees have been formed to support or oppose candidates for office, ballot measures or legislation. But Robert Rogers, the committee’s chairman, told the Star-Telegram that the organization doesn’t have any immediate plans to support or oppose specific candidates, though he didn’t rule it out in the future. The committee’s primary goal will be informing elected officials and candidates for office about the importance of literacy, and the role they can play in the issue, he said.
Rogers, who also serves as president of the nonprofit Reading League of Texas, said momentum is growing among school and community leaders around the issue of literacy, but there still isn’t broad city-wide awareness about how far behind Fort Worth has fallen, or why that’s such a problem. That lack of awareness means the city isn’t as invested in the search for solutions as it needs to be, he said.
Across Fort Worth, only 35% of public school students scored on grade level in reading on last year’s STAAR exam — a one-point decline from the previous year, according to a report released in August by the Fort Worth Education Partnership. The report includes all public schools in the Fort Worth city limits, spanning all or parts of 12 school districts, as well as nine public charter school networks.
In the Fort Worth Independent School District, where nearly half of the city’s public school students are enrolled, 33% of students scored on grade level in reading on last year’s STAAR — a number that has barely budged for at least a decade. Rogers said it’s critical that all public officials understand the gravity of the problem and why it’s their responsibility to help solve it, whether they have a formal role in the school system or not.
In Texas, city officials have no direct control over schools. But that doesn’t mean that city council members and other officials have no role to play, Rogers said. As an example, he pointed to the public library system. The Fort Worth Public Library is a city department, but it can coordinate its efforts with local school districts to better support literacy programs, he said.
Mayor Parker: Political fights don’t help students
During Friday’s news conference, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker noted that lawmakers both in Washington and in Austin are engaged in partisan battles over education. But Parker said those arguments rarely include any mention of learning or student achievement. But she pointed out that there were leaders from across the political spectrum and all parts of the city involved in the effort to improve literacy in Fort Worth.
That level of cooperation is critical to solving the problem, Parker said, because partisan fights have done nothing to help kids read. Leaders in Fort Worth, including those involved in the political action committee, need to be “the adults in the room,” putting students at the center of every conversation about education, she said.
“Right now, our kids are suffering,” she said. “They are in failing schools all across our city, and we’ve ignored it for decades.”
Parker, who was involved in founding the committee, said funding has come from a number of smaller philanthropic donations. No single organization is bankrolling the initiative, she said.
Momentum grows around literacy in Fort Worth
Friday’s announcement comes amid growing calls from Tarrant County’s civic and business leaders for schools in the Fort Worth area to improve their reading scores. Last fall, Parker spoke at a Fort Worth ISD board meeting, calling for a broad, city-wide effort to make sure students can read on grade level. Parker noted that the percentage of students reading on grade level in Fort Worth ISD had remained essentially flat over the past decade, while other big urban districts like Dallas and Houston ISDs saw steady gains.
In February, Tarrant County commissioners passed a resolution calling on school districts in the county to make literacy their highest priority. During a news conference announcing the resolution, Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrells and Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said there’s a strong link between literacy and public safety. Sorrells said illiteracy can be a major driver of crime, because students who can’t read well are more likely to drop out of school, which in turn makes them more likely to resort to crime because they don’t have the skills to get a job.
Noakes agreed, saying that police are “all too aware” of the connection between a lack of education and crime. Communities that focus on reading and making sure students have the opportunity to succeed can head off crime before it happens, he said.
The commissioners court’s resolution came about a month after the school board in Fort Worth ISD, the county’s largest district, approved a resolution naming literacy as its highest priority. During a news conference ahead of the board meeting, Superintendent Karen Molinar acknowledged that literacy represented “a crisis in Fort Worth.” Molinar, who was serving as interim superintendent at the time, said the issue of literacy is a city-wide problem that demands a city-wide solution — one that goes beyond Fort Worth ISD itself.
Parker said she thinks the momentum around the issue of literacy comes in part from having officials, both elected and otherwise, who are willing to talk about the problem. She pointed to Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, who introduced the commissioners court’s literacy resolution, as well as Molinar, the Fort Worth ISD superintendent. Since taking over as interim superintendent, Molinar has spoken frankly about the problem and developed a strategy to redirect more of the district’s budget toward literacy.
While she acknowledged the complexities of the political situation in Texas and across the country, Parker said she’s optimistic about where the city’s schools are headed. If community leaders are willing to put aside political differences and focus on solving the problem, there’s no reason Fort Worth can’t be the top-performing urban school system in the state, if not the nation, she said.
“We’re the city built on so much promise — a city that builds the F-35,” she said. “I think we can figure out how to help kids read.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 4:47 PM.
