Schools: Charter Schools – Dispatches from Dallas

We’ll start today with the biggest news, which is the change of heart from the half of the board of Keller ISD which makes the decisions, and move on from there. The themes are clear: districts have a lot of money problems, small districts are going to four days a week, and a lot of kids need to get vaccinated.

Fort Worth Report: Keller ISD abandons plan to split district into two, citing financial barriers; Dallas Morning News: Keller school board kills plan to split district, citing costs associated with detachment; Star-Telegram: Keller school board kills plan to split district, citing costs associated with detachment. Not the outcome I expected but I’m glad they came to the correct conclusion. Nobody wanted the district to split except half of the board, and I hope those folks aren’t on the board much longer after all this. Also, some related items from before the board made this decision:
- KERA: Keller ISD grapples with potential $12.4M deficit as new split details emerge. One of the factors leading up to the decision.
- Fort Worth Report: Former Keller ISD superintendent to earn $425K after resigning amid split proposal. Also a factor. And now they lost her and the money for nothing.
- As Keller ISD saga continues, lawmaker seeks to require public vote on school district splits. That’s State Rep. David Lowe (R-North Richland Hills), and the bill was filed before the decision not to split the district came out.
KERA: Dallas ISD absences spiked in January – and it could cost the district. Looks like it wasn’t just illnesses, but also immigration threats. The article explains how attendance and absences affect funding.
DMN: Fewer Dallas teachers will get bonuses as school turnaround model shifts. This is about bonus money teachers get at schools that need to “turn around”. They’re reducing the number of schools that get extra support from 80 to 50, so fewer teachers will get the extra pay.
Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD spares five schools from closure or consolidation. More decisions loom. The district isn’t going to get any more money from the state, and enrollment is declining as we go into another demographic low, so they’re going to have to find savings somewhere. I feel sorry for everyone involved. Related, also from the Fort Worth Report: Vouchers aren’t pushing Fort Worth ISD to close schools, leaders say. Here’s what is.
Star-Telegram: Fort Worth ISD school board hires Karen Molinar for superintendent position. This is something of a formality since she was the only finalist. See also the Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD trustees hire new superintendent.
Star-Telegram: FWISD board says it prioritizes literacy. Time to put district’s money where its mouth is | Opinion. I don’t know the organizations behind this op-ed, but I’m noting it here.
Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD trustees OK $22M in spending. Here’s what they approved in February. The Fort Worth Report covers FWISD spending every month.
Fort Worth Report: Fact brief: Is Fort Worth ISD considering a four-day school week? No. Though other area districts are.
Star-Telegram: 4 challengers are on Fort Worth ISD school board ballot in May. Here are their priorities.
Fort Worth Report: Arlington ISD cuts 27 junior high teaching positions through attrition, increases class sizes.
Fort Worth Report: Q&A: These candidates want to be on Arlington ISD school board. Here are their priorities.
KERA: Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD to close four schools. Three elementary schools and one middle school.
Fort Worth Report: Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD faces $10M deficit in next budget, admins eye cuts.
KERA: Grand Prairie ISD names lone superintendent finalist. He’s Gabe Trujillo, currently Nacogdoches ISD superintendent.
Star-Telegram: Mondays no more: Kennedale ISD to switch to four-day school week in 2026. Kennedale is south-southeast of Fort Worth, between Fort Worth and Mansfield.
D Magazine: Monty Bennett Is Secret Mastermind Behind Dallas Charter School Group. And when the educators involved figured it out, most of them immediately quit because Bennett is toxic.
Is the four-day school week inevitable? Why more Texas districts are headed that way | Opinion. This op-ed by Mark Davis, a local talk radio guy who regularly opines for the paper, is probably a good look at what the talk radio listener at home thinks.
DMN: What does the U.S. Department of Education do for Texas students?. Our tax dollars no longer at work, because the current administration has decided to close the Department of Education whether it’s legal or not.
Last but not least, a series of articles about measles:
- DMN: Map: These Texas schools have low measles vaccination rates. Yikes.
- WFAA: These North Texas schools have the lowest measles vaccination rates in the region. Also yikes.
- DMN: Fort Worth’s Mercy Culture celebrates school with lowest measles vaccination rate in Texas. Under 15%. Very yikes. This is the school attached to the church where Rep. Nate Schatzline is pastor.
- Star-Telegram: Mercy Culture pastor celebrates church school having lowest vaccination rate in Texas. There’s even a picture of the head pastor wearing a T-shirt celebrating this “achievement”.

There is regularly a lot of news about the school districts here in North Texas, which is because just as Texas is the national laboratory for bad government, North Texas is one of the state laboratories for terrible school district decisions. So I’m going to try to round up what’s going on with our local districts and what’s going on statewide (and nationally, if needed) that will affect our local schools.

First, another piece of the Keller ISD puzzle from the Star-Telegram: Fort Worth City Council calls for zoning changes to 23 Keller ISD properties. Looks like they think some of the properties might be sold off for parts when the district breaks up, so they’re going to prevent that by zoning them all as community facilities (not commercial, industrial, or residential).
Second: our state government at work: KHOU: Yes, there is a lawsuit that could eliminate Section 504. This lawsuit is Texas v Becerra, which seeks to remove protections for gender dysphoria, but as a part of its arguments says Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which protects folks with disabilities from discrimination, is unconstitutional. More on this case from the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, who are understandably unhappy.
Fort Worth Report: Fact brief: Did the Texas Lottery start as a way to help fund public schools?. The answer, which I am old enough to remember, is yes. Apparently people on social media think it was supposed to fund all of our public school needs, which is of course not true.
Texas Tribune: With vouchers fast-tracked, other Texas public education issues to watch this session. What we need to talk to our legislators about.
Texas Observer: Molly Ivins on School Vouchers (1997). We have been having this fight for a long time. Also, I still miss Molly.
Texas Tribune: In quest to infuse more religion into Texas schools, advocates say courts are now on their side. One of the bills to get more religion in school is from Sen Phil King (R-Weatherford), from just west of Fort Worth.
KERA: Majority of Texas school districts aren’t in compliance with armed security requirement. This was last session’s unfunded mandate placed on schools.
DMN: More North Texas teachers under investigation for alleged cheating and Star-Telegram: State identifies more teachers from North Texas districts in certification investigation. This is ongoing fallout from the big fake certification scandal in Houston. We’ll be hearing more about this for a while.
Dallas Observer: Every Texas School District Book Ban. This is about the PEN America report discussed in this Guardian article: Multi-level barrage of US book bans is ‘unprecedented’, says PEN America.
Fort Worth Report: Fort Worth ISD trustees discuss possibly closing as many as 25 schools to rightsize district and What are Fort Worth ISD’s school closure options? Here’s what’s on the table. Also, from the Star-Telegram: Fort Worth ISD gathers community feedback with school closure decisions on the horizon. Demographics and funding are a merciless pair.
Fort Worth Report: Northwest ISD cuts student programs as $16M deficit forces staff reduction, larger classes. At the same time, the Lege continues to want to send more money to private schools.
‘It Doesn’t Make Any Sense’: More Local Schools Proposed for Closure. This time it’s Carrolton-Farmers Branch ISD. Three of the four schools slated for closure are Title I schools, with 40% of kids qualifying for free/reduced lunches. Also more Black and brown kids.
Arlington charter school principal, 2 others charged in connection to child sex abuse. The two other adults are staff members at Newman International Academy High School in Arlington; one had the relationship with the child and the other two covered it up.
AP: DOGE cuts $900 million from agency that tracks American students’ academic progress. “Some of the biggest contracts were for long-term studies that track students’ learning from kindergarten through high school, a study evaluating strategies for teaching elementary school reading, and research on the effectiveness of supports for youth with disabilities, according to list of cuts obtained by The Associated Press.” Your tax dollars are not at work.
Fort Worth Report: Feds file lawsuit against maker of AI-powered weapons screener used in Mansfield ISD. Mansfield ISD stands behind the screening devices after spending about $2.3 million to put them in across 49 campuses in the fall.
KERA: Texas AG Paxton investigating two more school districts over trans athlete policies. One of the two districts is Richardson ISD, where I’m zoned. (The other is Hutto ISD near Austin.) I would like to think the Attorney General of the State of Texas has better things to do with his time than panty patrol on teenaged girls, but apparently not. Previously in the Dallas Observer: Ken Paxton Bullies Dallas, Irving ISDs Over Transgender Youths in Sports.
DMN: North Texas schools rebounding from pandemic learning loss, new rankings show. This is the Children at Risk (private) ranking since the TEA rankings are still in court.
KERA: Grand Prairie ISD approves separation agreement with former superintendent. I still have no idea who Jorge Arredondo pissed off within the first two months of his job as superintendent there, but whoever it was had the pull to get him out. That said, the agreement here is keeping all the details under wraps, so if he did something heinous, nobody will know.
Star-Telegram: With eyes on the future, Fort Worth Country Day unveils new $25M lower school. Fort Worth Country Day was, when I was in high school at St. John’s School in Houston, one of the schools in the same prep league. This is how the other half lives and where your voucher money is likely to go. I don’t begrudge more middle class kids getting into schools like Fort Worth Country Day–it’ll do both the rich kids and the less-rich kids some good–but at the same time, we need to fund our public schools fully before we consider putting extra money into private schools, most of which are not of the caliber of Fort Worth Country Day.

Tag: Schools: Charter Schools

School District Saturday – 2025 03 15

School District Saturday – 2025 02 15