TEA Commissioner Mike Morath was required to take action under state law after one of Fort Worth’s campuses received a failing accountability rating for five consecutive school years. (Photo by Melissa Phillip/Getty Images)
Fort Worth ISD officials can defend the district during an informal review on Thursday. A state takeover would mean sweeping changes to the district’s local leadership.
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is taking over Fort Worth ISD by replacing its elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers, appointing a conservator to manage the district’s finances, and hiring a new superintendent.
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath was required to take action under state law after one of Fort Worth’s campuses—Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade Center—received a failing accountability rating for five consecutive school years. The district already closed the campus, but Morath claimed that many schools in the district are struggling.
With nearly 70,000 students and 10,000 employees, Fort Worth ISD is the state’s second-largest school district to be taken over by the state. Houston ISD, which underwent a state takeover in 2023 that’s been extended to 2027, is the largest.
“After engaging in a comprehensive analysis of district data and a thorough vetting of district systems, leadership, and student results, I am hereby ordering the appointment of both a board of managers to govern the district and a conservator,” Morath said in a letter to the district on Oct. 23 obtained by the Fort Worth Report.
In a statement, Fort Worth ISD’s Board of Trustees said it’s “disappointed by the decision and hopes the matter will be reconsidered.”
The board can appeal Morath’s decision, and current school district leaders can defend their case during an informal review on Thursday, Oct. 30 in Austin.
Lawmakers are also voicing their frustrations with the takeover.
“Let’s be clear: This takeover has nothing to do with improving the lives of low-income children in Fort Worth ISD,” US Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) said. “This hostile takeover is about one thing: Paving the way for underperforming charter schools and private school vouchers to dominate public education in Fort Worth. This is 100% about politics.”
The accountability rating that determines whether the state must intervene has faced criticism, with a coalition of state lawmakers previously calling the methodology “deceptive, harmful, and a blatant attempt to discredit neighborhood public schools to justify school privatization schemes.”
District takeovers have also faced controversy in Texas for stripping communities of their autonomy over classrooms.
“The state’s takeover structure does not afford sufficient public input and without consideration of outside factors that contribute to a student’s success, the purported turnaround will come at a cost, not just to the public’s trust, but also to the future success of this community,” state Rep. Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth) said in a prepared statement.
Collier also expressed her skepticism about the TEA’s history of “top-down control.”
“The TEA’s approach must be transparent and focused on the actual betterment of our students, not on advancing a political agenda or implementing one-size-fits-all solutions,” she said.
State Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston), who has seen school takeovers first-hand in Harris County, shared Collier’s sentiments.
“Fort Worth families elected their school board to represent their values and their children’s needs,” Wu said in a statement. “Greg Abbott and his cronies at TEA took that voice away. This is the same playbook they used on my community in Houston: When parents don’t bow to Republicans’ extremist agenda, they dissolve democracy itself.”
“Fort Worth ISD cut its failing schools from 31 to 11 in just one year, but instead of supporting that progress, Republicans are seizing control. If Republicans cared half as much about actually funding our neighborhood schools as they do about their voucher scam to funnel taxpayer money into private schools, we wouldn’t be here in the first place,” Wu added.
Republican lawmakers—including Gov. Greg Abbott—praised the TEA’s decision.
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin), who recently launched her campaign for governor, said the takeover is a “crisis of Greg Abbott’s own making” and that Fort Worth ISD has been underfunded by the state, which has starved public education of “needed resources.”
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said the TEA’s decision has the “potential to be transformative,” and expressed her support for FWISD Superintendent Karen Molinar to maintain her position.
The TEA announced a public application process to hire a new superintendent, but Morath said he is committed to giving Molinar the opportunity to reapply.
Fort Worth families and staff members won’t see any immediate changes, but if the TEA moves forward with its takeover, the agency will post an application on its website to seek out Fort Worth residents interested in serving on the state-appointed board.
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