by Jacob Sanchez, Fort Worth Report
October 4, 2026
The Rev. Kristin Klade has had a front row seat to Texas taking control of Fort Worth ISD.
Her children are in FWISD schools. She applied for an appointment to the board of managers. She rallied parents through a group called FORT, or Families Organized & Responding to Takeover.
Sitting in the back row at a panel discussion Wednesday at Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Klade asked three school finance lawyers a question she’s heard from other community members and thought about herself: “Do you all believe there’s a valid legal case to be made against the takeover law in terms of taxation without representation?”
Her question was the session’s last, but it struck at the heart of what the lawyers spent an hour discussing. Texas lawmakers decide how much money schools get and how much districts can raise in property taxes. Bit by bit, the panelists said, the state has taken power away from local communities.
Josh Sanderson, executive director of The Equity Center, an Austin-based nonprofit representing Texas school districts, pointed to how much say the state has over districts. It can take over a district, force it to merge with another or eliminate it entirely.
“This idea that school districts are truly independent is a misconception,” Sanderson said.
The control is rooted in funding.
School districts are funded through three sources:
- Local property tax revenue, often the largest pool.
- State funds.
- Federal funds.
Texas has a say over the dollars it sends to schools as well as on property taxes.
The state funds schools based on student attendance. The base amount for per-student funding is $6,215. The per-student funding is a starting point.
The state provides additional dollars based on a district’s size and student population. It considers how many students are learning English, how many come from low-income families and how many receive special education services. Other factors are considered, too.
To hit the base per-student funding, Texas counts how much a district expects to raise from local property taxes at a state-set rate. The difference is then made up by the state.
In 2025, the Legislature increased per-student funding by $55. The last major bump was in 2019 when lawmakers increased it by $1,020.
The current per-student funding does not go as far as it did seven years ago, Sanderson said. Just to keep up with inflation, funding would need to increase about $1,300 per student, he said.
Much of the 2025 increase passed through districts to teachers and staff, while a small portion helped with rising costs, Sanderson said.
The Equity Center polled around 300 school districts about whether they adopted shortfalls in the past two years. Last year, around 32% did. This year? More than half.
Districts across Fort Worth are feeling the squeeze. FWISD faces a nearly $50 million shortfall. Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Crowley, Aledo, White Settlement and Lake Worth school districts all adopted shortfall budgets.
“That’s striking to me, at least because this is immediately after the Legislature passed an $8.5 billion school finance bill, and you have more districts adopting deficit budgets than not,” Sanderson said.
Klade’s question, though, was about who decides money issues.
In March, the Texas education commissioner appointed a new superintendent and board of managers, replacing elected trustees and their pick for schools chief.
Is there a legal case? No, Sanderson told Klade.
State lawmakers would say the voice of FWISD residents remains in the Legislature, which oversees the Texas Education Agency, he said.
“It’s just not where you would like for it to be,” Sanderson said.
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected] or @_jacob_sanchez.
Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report’s reader advisory council. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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