Reply #6: I live in Fort Worth, TX [View All]

[Doohickie]

My wife is currently a student teacher and will finish her degree next semester. We have two sons, one in 8th grade, one in 12th. We moved here from Michigan in '97.

The way the lines are drawn, our kids don't go to Fort Worth schools. The district we are in covers the southern neighborhoods of Fort Worth and the northern neighborhoods of the next town. Until the last 10 years or so, it was a "small-town" rural district but has irrevocably grown into a major suburban district.

Our sons span a large range of needs. The older one is a hyper-nerd who scored 99th percentile on the ACTs and got 5's on two AP classes as a junior. Our younger son was in full-time special ed from the age of three because of processing and communications difficulties.

Both have thrived in the public schools. We have philosophical run-ins from time to time with teachers and administrations, but for the most part, they do okay. Our oldest is applying to colleges (most of them up North; he's a yankee at heart even if he's lived most his life here). Our youngest has largely gotten over his speech problems and is no longer receiving any special treatment. He's an A-B student.

So overall, we can't complain.

Lately, however, our district has gotten a new superintendent and the high school a new principal. Both are far more interested in passing standardized tests and winning football games, than they are in academics. They cut a band director (going from 6 to 5 for grades 7-12, roughly 600 students on three campuses (7-8, 9, & 10-12)) so they could give the football coaches a raise. There are 14 coaches for 185 players in 7-12 grades.

My older son was in pretty good shape going into his senior year. But this past year, they've changed the school schedule to be less conducive to the band, they cut AP classes, etc. Only because we and other parents raised strenuous objections were the AP courses restored.

Our marching band, which went to state competition last year, ended up being disqualified this year because a student who marched in the regional contest was ineligible even though she had a waiver signed by the principal. Whether he signed the waiver because he was ignorant or he was trying to actually harm the band program is not clear.

The administration hides behind the fact that the Robin Hood state school financing plan is failing. The administration uses that as its excuse. It's been declared unconstitutional by the courts, with a threat to close down all public schools in the state next October if a new system is not in place. For those of you not familiar with Robin Hood, the idea is that tax-rich districts give some of their tax dollars to the state for redistribution to poorer districts. One of the features is that there is a limit on the taxes a district can raise for normal operating expenses without giving it all to the state. Any more than $1.50/$100 of assessed value goes straight to the state, 100%.

Our district, and many others, are at the "$1.50 cap". So even if we want to give more money to the schools in our local area, we cannot.

The state legislature has been well aware of the impending crisis as more and more schools reached the $1.50 cap. Last year, however, instead of calling special sessions for reforming school financing, they had special sessions for, yep, you guessed it, redistricting.

Anyway, getting back to our local situation, I can understand that the schools are wrestling with financial constraints. However, I see our administrators being very parochial in the way they deal with these problems. While cutting the band program, the football team got new astroturf and new video equipment this year. They are cutting teachers while adding administrators. My wife suggested in a letter to the school board (which was copied in the local paper) that perhaps the administrators, all ex-educators themselves, should each teach a class at the middle school or high school level to ease the crunch on teachers.

They don't really seem too interested in making sacrifices on their part, as long as they can collect their money and make the parents and students bear the sacrifices. We are hoping to pull of a Coup d'School Board in the spring and maybe that will get their attention.

Our district was, up until this year, a great example of a suburban district with pretty decent racial harmony, good (bordering on great) academics, and a high level of involvement by the students in extracirriculars, with marching band being the most popular. In the last year, a disturbing trend has started though. I was hoping a new president would change the way people look at education, but I'm not so sure any more.

My wife, in acting as a concerned parent, has virtually assurred that our local district will not hire her. She is looking out for the interests of her children and others that want a quality education. It's gotten to the point that when she sends a letter to the editor, the local paper contacts the superintendent so he can rebut it (and he usually does a crappy job of that).

If things in our current district continue to slide, we may move to another district (if anything better is out there). Private school is NOT an option, patially because of cost and partially on principle (the public schools SHOULD be providing a quality education). If my wife secures a teaching job in a district we think our younger son will do better in, she may simply take him with her to school (which is allowed here).

So.... it's a mixed bag, but the trend is not good.