Hundreds of people applied to serve on Fort Worth ISD’s state takeover board. Here’s a look at who they are.

"The stories Lizza and Nuzzi tell give you the extremely wrong idea of what it means to be a journalist. We, despite what every Hollywood property from 'House of Cards' to 'The West Wing' would have you believe, do not date our sources... We’re not rich, guys." www.washingtonpost.com/style/2025/1...

When the Texas Education Agency announced plans to take over the Fort Worth school district, parents said they were worried teachers here would have to use the same kinds of prepackaged, scripted lessons like we saw in Houston. Teachers say they're already here. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

"Otter is down, but will be back online shortly" Every journalist:

With the state takeover process getting started in Fort Worth ISD, I talked to parents and students in Houston about what the intervention was like there, an what to expect here. All of them said they were worried for Fort Worth. Gift link: www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

This has been an incredible series to watch, unless you're a fan of either of these teams, in which case I suspect you aren't having very much fun at all.

There's fortitude.... then there's mossing your teammate at the track in the bottom of the 9th of game 7 in the World Series after coming in the game 9 pitches ago

The Texas Education Agency is taking over Fort Worth ISD. It's the second-biggest district takeover in the state's history. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

The number of teachers who use AI in the classroom is growing fast, both in Texas and across the country. But school districts are struggling to keep up. Gift link: www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Here's what we know about today's mass layoffs

It's been five years since school shutdowns ended, and districts are still dealing with chronic absenteeism. I talked to officials in the Fort Worth school district about why it's such a challenge and what they're doing about it. Gift link: www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

How will the government shutdown affect schools? Depends on how long it lasts. Gift link: www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Texas is going after teachers who celebrated the death of Charlie Kirk. Can they do that? Gift link: www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

The district is grappling with limited funds and declining enrollment, but officials say no decisions have been made about closures.

When schools shut down at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a spike in the number of families who homeschooled. Most people expected that would normalize once the pandemic ended. But that hasn't happened. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Texas Education Agency investigators found that a Fort Worth area school district violated federal law in its dealings with students in its special education program. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/f...

Texas Ed Commissioner Mike Morath was in Fort Worth this morning, ahead of a decision on whether he'll take over the district. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

DON'T DO IT

The Fort Worth school district is set to close 18 schools over the next few years due to declining enrollment. We looked at how groups of parents at two campuses pushed back against school closures, and why one group was successful and the other wasn't. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

FOIA exemptions.

Also, sign up for PBS Passport! You pay what you want, money goes to your local station, and you get access to tons more great programming on-demand. help.pbs.org/support/solu...

The Fort Worth school district says it has $10 million in federal funding tied up in the Trump administration's education grant funding freeze. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

The Fort Worth school district is closing a bunch of schools due to enrollment declines. I looked at one neighborhood where enrollment is dropping even as the kid population is increasing to see what's going on. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

CNN’s reporter on scene in Los Angeles: I’m being detained..

Two years into a state takeover, Houston ISD is seeing higher test scores, but also a lot of turmoil. I looked at what it can tell us about where Fort Worth may be headed. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

If you are not originally from Texas, but practice law here, a good thing to do is occasionally say things like "pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered" or "that man's got less sense than a peach orchard goat."

"Pete Rose was a lot of things... but in the end, there was one thing that anyone who had ever dealt with him in even the slightest passing way ultimately agreed upon: He was a miserable asshole."

Seems like a good day to re-read this column from @stltoday.com's Ben Frederickson www.stltoday.com/sports/colum...

Texas' education commissioner warned the Fort Worth school district that it's at risk of being taken over by the state after one of the district's campuses received five straight failure ratings — a campus the district has already shut down. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Already very aware of stroke, thanks

Texas' long-delayed 2023 A-F ratings could put FWISD at risk of a state takeover. But the likelihood of that happening is hard to pin down. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

The Texas Education Agency released 2023 A-F scores this morning, after a two-year legal battle. The state education commissioner acknowledges that they're too out of date to do anybody any good. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

More than half of last year's crop of new teachers in Texas were uncertified. Lawmakers are looking to clamp down. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

#Breaking: The @apnews.com reports that Texas AG Ken Paxton won't face federal corruption charges. It's a win for the Republican AG accused of abusing his office to help a campaign donor. He was impeached, and acquitted, on these same allegations. www.kut.org/politics/202... #txlege

I wrote a couple of weeks back about how tariffs are going to make school building projects more complicated. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Melissa Malonson emptied her desk at the downtown Dallas office of the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday morning after 25 years of service. She was one of more than 4,000 federal employees laid off in March when the Education Department eliminated six of its regional offices.

A Fort Worth family is in a legal battle with their school district over access to services for their four-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Annual reminder that Opening Day ought to be a national holiday.

I have some comments in this article, though they didn’t include the part where I said the Trump admin deporting students for campus protests was a 5-alarm fire for the First Amendment. www.star-telegram.com/news/state/t...

Advocates say a lawsuit to overturn Section 504 is a threat to the rights of people with disabilities. I talked with a Fort Worth mom about how 504 helped her kids stay on track in school, and her thoughts about its possible demise. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

You need to read this.

the clearest proof Jackie Robinson was one of the most consequential people in history is that nearly a century after he started playing baseball, cowards are still working tirelessly to shut him up

As deportations ramp up, US-born students whose parents are undocumented are trying to figure out whether it's safe to fill out the FAFSA. I talked to a Fort Worth senior about how her family is dealing with that decision. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

happy saint patrick's day everyone

A New Hampshire man with a green card was detained by immigration officers at Logan Airport and is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025...

👎👎👎 apnews.com/article/sout...

The back-and-forth around tariffs is causing a lot of uncertainty in the construction industry. I looked at what that means for school districts that are trying to get anything built. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Greg Abbott was back in Fort Worth last night, stumping for school vouchers. It was more or less the same message as two years ago, but it looks like he might get somewhere with it this time around. www.star-telegram.com/news/local/e...

Student loan borrowers who said their lenders overcharged them were days away from getting help when the Trump administration fired the federal workers who were set to step in. hechingerreport.org/student-loan... via @hechingerreport.org #highered #college #studentloans #education

The Trump administration has "designated for disposal" the Oklahoma City Federal Building. This building replaced the one destroyed by a far-right, anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh in 1995. 🧵