With Home Rule Commission in Place, Is Dallas on Track to Bring Back the Middle Class?

Both Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price said that education is one of the major issues facing North Texas. But other than outright dissolution or breaking up the urban districts, advocates and officials are scrambling for ways to fix underperforming schools and disaffected communities.

The idea that has gained the most traction is home rule. It’s a complicated process that involves a commission appointed by school board officials that will then develop a charter, which will then go to a citywide ballot for a vote. In the end, the district will be reshaped in a way that will change how the school district is managed.

It’s been hailed as a way to cut through the bureaucracy that has kept Dallas schools from succeeding. If the district reorganizes and becomes more successful, more middle-class people will come back to the city, and so will employers.

At least that’s what Rawlings hopes.

Of course, some people are a little thrown by the charter commission appointees, which include some relatives of current DISD board members, as well as some controversial former board members. Here’s a complete list from the Dallas Morning News:

Melissa Malonson (appointed by District 1 trustee Elizabeth Jones)

Edwin Flores (by District 2 trustee Mike Morath)

Jeff Veazey (by District 3 trustee Dan Micciche)

Ricardo Mendez (by District 4 trustee Nancy Bingham)

Lew Blackburn Jr. (by District 5 trustee Lew Blackburn Sr.)

Marcus Ranger (by District 6 trustee Carla Ranger)

Jerome Garza (by District 7 trustee Eric Cowan)

Danae Gutierrez (by District 8 trustee Miguel Solis)

Shirley Ison-Newsome (by District 9 trustee Bernadette Nutall)

Stephanie Elizalde (at-large)

Bob Weiss (at-large, interim chair)

Isaac Freeman (teacher appointed by the district advisory committee)

Ron Oliver (teacher appointed by the committee)

Bonita Reece (teacher appointed by the committee)

Julie Sandel (teacher appointed by the committee)

So, some of these names will sound familiar if you’ve lived in Dallas for any length of time. Still, I have to agree with what Betsy Price said last week at the New Cities Summit, ahead of the U.S. Conference of Mayors:

“When it comes to schools, there is a lot of apathy and lack of involvement. We have got to get engaged. We have got to get involved.” Price said. “When I speak to groups, I always say, ‘Have you been to school lately?'”

Rawlings agreed, rather adamantly. Add Dan Micciche to that list of people who want to focus on parent involvement and access to pre-school. In fact, he wrote a very interesting column in March about the proposed White Rock school district. Here’s a good excerpt:

Almost 90 percent of the 159,000 students in DISD are from economically disadvantaged families. Almost 40 percent of our students speak little or no English. Even a White Rock ISD would have a student population with almost 80 percent economically disadvantaged students.

Children from economically disadvantaged families often start school well behind middle-class children because their parents, for a variety of reasons, did not start educating them when they were 2 years old.

In DISD, only 43 percent of our students are ready for kindergarten.

The data on the importance of early childhood education is sobering: Children who do not read at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

To be sure, every child can learn and succeed. But from day one, our teachers are charged with the responsibility of catching up thousands of students who begin school without the benefit of the educational head start that middle-class children typically have. It is also well-documented that children from economically disadvantaged families often lose ground over the long summer break.

Thus, whether we have a new DISD governance structure under a home rule charter, a new White Rock ISD or the current DISD governance structure, we have to help our educators help our students overcome these challenges.

So, while these plans are bold, the question remains whether home rule or White Rock ISD will actually change the culture around our schools, and actually do all of the things that Rawlings want it to do, including stanching the outmigration of Dallas’ middle-class residents.