FORT WORTH, TX – Fort Worth Independent School District, or Fort Worth ISD, is facing a massive wave of resignations and retirements as the State moves to take over its local school board, deepening instability in a district already labeled underperforming. The loss of experienced educators threatens to further strain campuses already targeted by state intervention.
In a move that the director of the United Educators Association of Texas calls a “gut punch”, Fort Worth residents are having their local school board taken over by the state due to some campuses’ failing rating standards. State level direction of typically local issues is nothing new to Texas locals, nor is it new in the case of school boards; another instance of a supposedly “successful” takeover in Houston is now showing the signs of its long-term failure to produce results.
This cycle is apparent time and again. Bourgeois politicians who are so-called champions of “states’ rights” and “small government” stamp over the masses’ wishes and best interests in favor of those of the ruling capitalist class. The State of Texas in particular has expanded its direct control over local communities, whether through the near passage of a drag ban, the disallowing of marijuana decriminalization, or the deputizing of local police as agents of ICE.
Within a three-month period, the affected schools have lost over 800 teachers, a 58 percent increase over the previous year, as a result of the rapid and chaotic changes which do not take local considerations into account. This rapid restructuring of staff and faculty has created a dearth of experienced educators. Many of the teachers cited extreme micromanagement in the classroom from the new board, to the point of banning posters from classrooms.
This all serves the purpose of selling students’ long-term growth for quick short-term cosmetic improvements. It is no mistake: this is an intentional act done to make obedient workers out of students in largely national minority and working class communities. The targeting of these communities also serves a larger political purpose, with Governor Abbott’s controlled Texas Education Agency, or TEA, going so far as to “[warn] that schools could face state control if student protests [over federal immigration policy] continued”. This same TEA is the one that assigns the grading system to schools, with measures it decides on.
The chaos has fueled discontent among experienced teachers, who, because they are more costly to retain, also have greater ability to find positions at other schools. The resulting loss of experience has “forced” the district to take on a a 569% increase in the number of uncertified or inexperienced teachers, revealing a naked attempt to strip resources from a deteriorating education system.
As the capitalist class seeks to direct more funds away from education and toward its ever-growing militarized surveillance State over working people, it also requires new enemies on whom to shift blame for the ills of society. The masses are awakening to the true nature of the Texas State government and the wider system of oppression and destitution that Capitalism-Imperialism imposes on working people. As the masses organize against these attacks and combat rising fascism, they can begin laying the foundation for an education system of the New State, one rooted in serving the people and directed toward their liberation.
[Image Source: The Fort Worth ISD school board listens to public comment during a special school board meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in Fort Worth.
Elías Valverde II]
