BREAKING! Inner-city Pastors Call for TEA Takeover of Fort Worth ISD, Citing Massive Academic Failure in Inner-City Schools.

BREAKING! Inner-city Pastors Call for TEA Takeover of Fort Worth ISD, Citing Massive Academic Failure in Inner-City Schools.

“When one fish bellies up in the lake, you look at the fish. But when 77 of 138 fish belly up, it’s time to look at the lake,” said Pastor Kyev Tatum, calling attention to what he describes as a systemic failure within the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD).

Catch Up Quick: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released its long-delayed preliminary 2023 accountability ratings last month following a lawsuit by over 120 school districts, including FWISD. The results were grim: 77 out of 138 campuses—more than half the district—received a D or F rating, signaling failure by state standards. The district itself received an overall D rating.

One of the most concerning cases is the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School, formerly Glencrest Sixth Grade Campus, which has failed to meet state academic standards for five consecutive years—a critical threshold that triggers potential state intervention under TEA guidelines.

“It’s unconscionable what is happening to our children within FWISD,” said Pastor Tatum, civil rights leader and president of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas. “Parents are literally borrowing other people’s addresses just to escape the district. More than 20,000 students have fled FWISD. If that doesn’t sound the alarm, I don’t know what does. Something is rotten in the cotton.”

Tatum, a longtime education equity advocate, says the situation in Fort Worth is even more alarming than in Houston ISD, which was taken over by the TEA in 2023.

“We studied Houston ISD and found Fort Worth ISD’s data just as bad, if not worse. Yet the state has remained hands-off. That has to change,” Tatum said.

What a TEA Takeover Would Mean

Under Texas law, when a campus fails accountability standards for five or more years, the TEA may:

• Replace the elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers

• Reform or replace leadership at failing campuses

• Restructure or close chronically underperforming schools

This model was enacted last year in Houston ISD, where TEA cited years of academic underperformance and mismanagement as grounds for its takeover.

How Parents and Pastors Can Benefit. 

Pastor Tatum believes a state intervention in FWISD could provide a long-overdue opportunity to overhaul a broken system—especially in inner-city neighborhoods most affected by school failure.

“This isn’t about politics—it’s about the progress of our babies,” Tatum said. “A state takeover could finally allow Black parents and pastors to help redesign a system that has neglected our children for far too long.”

He outlined a clear vision for reform that includes:

• Parent empowerment through local advisory boards and decision-making roles

• Pastor and faith leader engagement as educational advocates and moral voices

• Academic recovery zones focused on tutoring, mentorship, dropout prevention, and career pathways in faith-based organizations.

• Fair and transparent allocation of resources to the most underserved campuses

• Trauma-informed and relevant curricula that affirm and uplift children impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACE).

“We will finally have an opportunity to reform FWISD in a way that puts students first,” Tatum said. “This is a defining moment. Faith leaders, parents, and community advocates must unite—not just to call out failure but to build something better.”

He concluded with a warning and a challenge:

“It’s no longer about isolated failure. It’s systemic. When 77 out of 138 campuses are failing, it’s not the fish—it’s the lake. And the lake must be cleaned, or the whole ecosystem dies with it.”