Business leaders touted the state takeover of Fort Worth ISD as necessary during a panel Wednesday, saying high-quality schools will fuel the city’s economic growth by attracting employers and benefiting families.
At the Build Your Fort Worth Workforce Summit hosted by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce at Texas Wesleyan University, three business executives shared observations from a December visit to a Houston ISD elementary school. The Texas Education Agency announced it was taking over Fort Worth ISD last year, following consecutive years of failed ratings at a campus.
The takeover felt like a “wake-up call,” said Mike Coffey, president of Imperative Information Group, a company that conducts background checks. In a city that has earned high rankings in economic success, Coffey urged business leaders to play larger roles in local schools.
“If the schools are bad, the employers won’t come here,” Coffey said. “We’ll be left with just a low-performing community. It’s not the kind of place we want to raise our kids.”
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During a takeover, TEA appoints a new board of managers and a new superintendent to govern the district. The state has stepped in for reasons including fiscal mismanagement, cheating scandals and consistently failing academic performance at a campus.
Houston ISD, the state’s largest district, went under state control in 2023. The three business leaders spent a couple hours and observed about five classrooms at Milne Elementary School.
Milne Elementary School, where 96% of students are economically disadvantaged, has seen jumps in its Texas A-F accountability grades. In 2023, the school had an F rating, and in 2024, it received a B — just shy of earning an A.
The executives were impressed by what they saw during their visit: timed lessons, rubrics and engagement from students. Tom Harris, executive vice president of Hillwood, a real estate investment and development company, called the system “incredibly regimented.”
“You really need to do something drastic, and this is drastic,” Harris said. “We’re going to have some people that are going to be mad along the way.”
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The state intervention has received much criticism from Houston ISD community members. They say that the curriculum leans too heavily on test preparation and scripted lesson plans, and they point to drops in teacher retention. In the 2024-25 school year, Houston ISD saw a teacher turnover rate of 32.2%, compared with the statewide average of 18.8%, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Some Fort Worth teachers, parents and students worry that Houston ISD’s experience will foreshadow their own. They also say the district has improved in recent years. In 2024, the district had 31 F-rated campuses, and last year, it had 11. Of its 135 campuses, 63 improved by at least one letter grade.
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TEA is still determining Fort Worth ISD’s board of managers, which will take over the responsibilities of the elected trustees. The managers work with the appointed superintendent to bolster academics and operations.
Nearly 300 people have applied to sit on the board, including Coffey’s wife and two of the speakers: Frost Prioleau, executive chairman of Simpli.fi, and Tom Harris.
“You got a commitment from us three that we’re going to stay engaged in some capacity, even if it’s not [on] the board of managers,” Harris said.
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.