Tarrant County judge applauds state takeover of Fort Worth ISD
While overviewing the Tarrant County successes from the past year, County Judge Tim O’Hare said the state takeover of Fort Worth ISD was “badly needed.”
The 15th annual State of the County, hosted by the Arlington Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, focused on the benefit of Arlington’s entertainment district and how Tarrant County elected officials have saved taxpayer dollars.
There are typically two State of the County events each year, one hosted in Arlington and another by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce.
“I believe the state takeover of Fort Worth ISD, which was badly needed, will end up being a huge success story for Fort Worth, for Tarrant County and for those kids,” O’Hare told the crowd of roughly 200.
O’Hare cited the FWISD students’ reading scores, saying “no one can say with a straight face we should just keep doing what we’re doing.”
The most recent state testing data, released in June 2025, showed improvement in reading scores across grades 3-8. According to the 2025 State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR exam, 41% of third-graders met grade-level expectations for reading compared to 33% in 2024.
the Fort Worth school district’s test scores have been stagnant for more than a decade before former Superintendent Karen Molinar joined the district. In 2015, just 28% of the district’s third-graders scored on grade level in reading. In 2024, the score was only 2 percentage points higher.
At the time, Molinar acknowledged the scores were not meeting state expectations. Molinar was replaced by state-appointed Peter Licata when the Texas Education Agency took over the district in March.
Texas students in grades 3-8 take STAAR tests at the end of the spring semester. The 2026 results will be released in June.
O’Hare lives in Southlake. The Carroll school district in Southlake is one of the state’s wealthiest, according to the Houston Chronicle.
He said he applauds the takeover.
“I think it’s going to pay dividends,” O’Hare said. “They were failing our kids. We were failing our kids, and I think this is going to turn around. They’ve got some really sharp people there, which will only benefit all of us.”