With Fort Worth-area schools sinking, everyone must grab a bucket — even city leaders | Opinion

Some crises call for all hands on deck. The discouraging record of public schools in the Fort Worth area and Texas more broadly is one of them.

If city leaders want to get involved in helping improve education, more power to them. It’s important that it be done the right way, respecting the school board trustees whom voters have chosen. Other leaders must try to be supportive, not supervisory.

The need for them to pitch in, though, is evident. The area’s struggling schools are the chief impediment to further growth and progress. Everyone from civic leaders to business executives knows it. One under-discussed aspect of Texas’ remarkable economic boom is that companies based here thanks to an attractive business climate often import talent. As a recent Dallas Morning News report noted, workers brought into Texas are typically better educated and more skilled than those available here.

Put another way: We talk often about international immigrants doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do. But this is more troubling: Non-Texans filling the jobs that Texas-born and bred workers cannot do.

It’s not just about the future workforce. Education is the key to a more fulfilling life and to spreading prosperity more broadly among all Texans. So many of our citizenry’s problems, from the trap of poverty to poor health outcomes, could be alleviated by raising education levels everywhere.

City leaders — and not just in Fort Worth — can contribute in several ways, and it’s important to note that many are already stepping up.

Mayor Mattie Parker’s focus on boosting the number of graduates with college-level or professional certifications is an example. So is former Mayor Betsy Price’s program to boost reading among younger students.

City officials can also help recognize and call attention to problems at the neighborhood-school level. They can demand fair distribution of resources and a surge to the schools that need it most. And they can help coordinate among business and philanthropic leaders and, when necessary, twist arms — including at the state level.

Some are tempted to dismiss the dire situation in our schools. But the numbers are staring us in the face: just 36% of Fort Worth third- through eighth-graders performed at grade level on the most recent state exams, according to the nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership.

That’s not just the Fort Worth ISD, whose struggles are well-documented, either. That’s across every public district and charter school. Don’t let the rosy state “grades” for districts fool you, either. Look at the student outcomes.

Republican leaders in the Legislature will focus heavily on school choice in the session now underway in Austin, and that’s fine as far as it goes. Like any struggling business, public schools need competition to spur innovation and change. Enrollment is dropping due to parents choosing home-schooling, private or charter schools or simply population redistribution after the pandemic.

It’s appropriate for policymakers to support parents’ choices and provide myriad options. But let’s not pretend that there won’t be a continuing need for strong public schools, especially for disadvantaged families. Abandoning public education is not an option.

In addition to the spur of competition, schools need a focus on achievement, with goals that reflect not just improvement but a path to success for every child. That means measuring progress, even while de-emphasizing high-stakes tests. It means holding school districts accountable, providing choice and opportunity within public schools, and encouraging parental involvement and investment in education at every level.

Great teachers are the biggest factor in overcoming almost any education obstacle. The state must invest in developing better educators and, most importantly, keeping them in the job — that means better pay, which means a significant spending increase.

When a ship is slowly sinking, everyone has to grab a bucket. If city leaders want to focus on education, let’s welcome the help.