In Fort Worth, our schools have never been just places where children learn. They are where neighborhoods breathe. They are where families gather for Friday night lights, where teachers shape generations and where parents pass along the pride of walking through the same doors their grandparents once entered.
For many of us, these schools are our legacy, living threads that tie past, present and future together.
That legacy is what moved me to run for the Fort Worth ISD school board. Long before I held elected office, I served as a PTA president, a youth mentor and a father who believed that when parents and educators work together, every child has a better chance to succeed. I have spent my life in classrooms, community centers and living rooms, listening to families talk about their dreams for their children. Their hopes have always been simple and profound: that their children will be seen, supported and inspired to become who they were meant to be.
When I ran for school board, I promised to bring that community voice into every decision I made. And every step of the way, I carried the same message I heard from parents across my district: Our students deserve better.
They wanted literacy to be our highest priority, not political arguments. They wanted their schools to be places of belonging, not battlegrounds. They wanted to see teachers valued, parents welcomed and students believed in.
These are not unreasonable demands. They are the heartbeat of public education.
That is why Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath’s decision to take over Fort Worth ISD cuts so deeply. It is not just a policy decision; it is a silencing of the very people who have the most at stake in our children’s success.
When a district is run by the state, parents lose their voice. Teachers lose their advocates. Communities lose the ability to hold anyone accountable. A takeover may appear to bring order, but it replaces local democracy with distance. It replaces relationships with regulations. It tells families who have worked, voted and shown up that their voices no longer matter.
I have seen what happens when people are given a voice. I have watched parents come together to form a PTA where none existed before, determined to show that engagement could make a difference. I have seen students find purpose because a teacher or mentor believed in them. That is the power of local ownership, not just of schools, but of destiny.
Our district has not been perfect. I have been one of its fiercest critics, questioning how hundreds of millions of federal dollars were used when too many students still could not read on grade level. I have voted against budgets that failed to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children. But I have also witnessed progress, teachers who began to feel supported again and parents who returned to the table. The school board has to find common purpose around student achievement and trust.
That progress came from Fort Worth. It came from people who love this city and believe in its children.
A state takeover cannot build on what a community creates. It cannot replace the trust that grows between a parent and a principal or the accountability that comes from electing someone who lives down the street.
We can and must do better for our students, but we will never reach that goal by taking power away from the very communities who have worked to lift our children up.
Fort Worth ISD does not need to be taken over. It needs belief and support. It needs to be given grace and helpful partnerships to finish what we have begun together.
Our children’s future depends not on who controls the system but on who still believes enough to stand for them. I still do. And so does this community.
Wallace Bridges represents District 4 (southeast Fort Worth) on the Fort Worth ISD Board of Trustees.
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