The Fort Worth school district will now be under the control of the state of Texas after years of poor student outcomes.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced the state takeover of Fort Worth ISD Thursday in what will be the second-largest state takeover in history. It comes just two years after Texas took over the state's largest school district, Houston ISD.
So what can Fort Worth expect?
Megan Menchaca is the senior Houston Independent School District reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She sat down with KERA's Justin Martin to talk about the Houston takeover.
The below interview was edited for length and clarity.
Why did the Texas Education Agency step in and take over the Houston School District?
The state takeover began because of chronic underperformance at one of the district's 274 schools. That was Wheatley High School. It had gotten enough consecutive failing ratings to qualify under state law for the state takeover. That takeover was delayed with lawsuits and other other issues, but after several years it ultimately happened in 2023.
Did the state's assessment of HISD line up with the perception from local leaders in Houston?
I think the the consensus was, "why are we being taken over if overall we are a B-rated district," to change the experience of the district for every single student based on one school. Local leaders questioned why that was necessary, why the state had to appoint a completely new board, a completely new superintendent just because of performance at one school, if the school district broadly was doing well and earning a B rating.
Is there criteria in place to end a takeover like this?
State law says that, after two years, the TEA commissioner has two options. Either he can extend the takeover for another two years, or he can announce a timeline back to elected control. So this is going to be the reality for Fort Worth for at least another two years, and then they'll know, "OK, is the state happy with our performance? Do they want to transition back to elected control? Or do they want another two years under this appointed board and potentially an appointed superintendent?"
Once that happens, the timeline takes even more years. So in Houston ISD, it's several years of onboarding of elected trustees before elected control totally resumes. I think it's going to be seven years, at least, that the district will be under at least partial state takeover.
What were the concerns in Houston amid this takeover?
I think the number one concern was the lack of the ability to directly hold the school board accountable. You know, people are still able to speak at public comment during school board meetings. They still are able to express their voice, but one of the most impactful things that a community member can do is, if they are unhappy with a school board member and it's not under a state takeover, they can vote them out. If they don't like the direction the district is headed in, they can say, "well, we're just going to vote you out, we're going to replace you with someone else who is going to do the kind of things we like." Under the state takeover, that is not an option. You don't have any way, as an average citizen of Fort Worth ISD, to remove the Fort Worth board members. You can express your opposition, but they're going to stick around unless the TEA commissioner decides he wants to replace them.
Did any of the fears and concerns from critics come to fruition?
The concern was that the board is not going to listen to what the people want to see in the school district. And what we have seen is that the board has generally been aligned with what the superintendent wants to do. I can only think of a couple of instances when there was any significant meaningful pushback from the board to the direction that reform-mined superintendent wanted to do. It's not every community member in the whole 170,000-person district, but that has caused, I think, some concern from people saying, "shouldn't you as a board be pushing back a little more to what the superintendent is doing?"
Has the district improved under the new leadership?
Overall the district, particularly its low-income and low-performing schools, were continually underperforming before the state takeover. Since then, many of them have reported higher ratings, but there's also been, I would say, some cost to that. The district lost a $4.4 billion bond election, at least partially because of some opposition to the takeover. Enrollment declines have accelerated, teacher staff and principal turnover has increased. So yes, at least according to the TEA and according to the STAAR results, scores on these exams are improving, but it's also come with some negative effects that not everyone is happy with.
Megan Menchaca covers Houston ISD for the Houston Chronicle. You can read more of her reporting at HoustonChronicle.com.
