West Fort Worth is voting on a school board rematch. Here’s our recommendation
Candidates running against a multi-term incumbent have to give voters a strong reason to kick their opponents out.
Fort Worth school board District 7 challenger Michael Ryan, taking on trustee Norman Robbins in the west/southwest district, says that Robbins has done a good job in 17 years on the board. He doesn’t offer much criticism or different policies or priorities he would pursue. Sometimes, he argued in our interview with the candidates, change is needed for its own sake.
That’s not a good enough reason. Robbins has a long record of service to the district, valuable experience and business savvy.
Voters should elect Robbins to another term. The 73-year-old Realtor has been supportive of the Fort Worth ISD’s efforts to move toward equitable resources for the Black and Hispanic students who make up the vast majority of the district.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who is behind these endorsements?
Members of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice, decide candidates and positions to recommend to voters. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bud Kennedy, columnist; Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor; and Nicole Russell, opinion writer.
Members of our Community Advisory Board may also participate in candidate interviews and offer their views, but they do not vote on which candidate to recommend.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How does the process work?
The Editorial Board interviews candidates, asking about positions on issues, experience and qualifications, and how they would approach holding the office for which they are running. Board members do additional research on candidates’ backgrounds and the issues at hand. After that, members discuss the candidates and generally aim to arrive at a consensus, though not necessarily unanimity. All members contribute observations and ideas, so the resulting editorials represent the board’s view, not a particular writer.
How do partisanship and ideology factor in?
We’re not tied to one party or the other, and our positions on issues range across the ideological spectrum. We tend to prefer candidates who align with our previously stated positions, but qualifications, temperament and experience are important, too.
We urge trustees to be vigilant in supervising efforts to boost student achievement, which has lagged too long. It’s particularly important now, with the setbacks borne of the coronavirus pandemic and virtual learning, that trustees be engaged and demand specific policies and measurements to make up for lost time.
We were surprised to hear Robbins say that, more than a year into the pandemic, the school board has not seen a plan from the administration to address the learning losses that have occurred during COVID-19. And Robbins seemed comfortable with that. That lack of urgency and accountability must change.
Ryan, 70, a longtime educator who is the local admissions officer for the U.S. Naval Academy, knows the issues facing the district well. He admirably rings the alarm of the Fort Worth district losing families to neighboring districts and charter schools. But he’s a little too focused on competition from Aledo, a very different district from Fort Worth.
More to the point, though, Ryan, who also ran against Robbins in 2017, still can’t explain why voters should replace the incumbent. So, they shouldn’t.
The winner will serve a four-year-term in the unpaid position. Early voting runs April 19 through April 27. Election Day is May 1.
This story was originally published April 1, 2021 at 11:24 AM.