Mayor Betsy Price, in her final State of the City address before she steps down this spring as Fort Worth’s longest serving mayor, said Thursday she supports additional days in school to help students catch up after the pandemic triggered substantial regression.
Price urged residents to voice their support at readfortworth.org’s site. The Texas Legislature in 2019 added half-day formula funding school systems that add days for extra elementary school instruction beginning in the 2020-21 school year.
“I support additional days,” Price said during the virtual address, hosted by the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and moderated by NBC5’s Deborah Ferguson.
“If that means we have to go into the summer, we have to do what it takes to get kids back on track,” Price said. She also urged residents to “pay attention to the school board races” this spring. “They’re critical.”
Elementary literacy was already a source of consternation among Fort Worth leaders before the pandemic, as only about a third of Fort Worth public school third graders were reading on level. Students not reading on level by then are less likely to be ready for college or career by the time they finish and high school, and are more likely to drop out before then, officials say.
That amounts to a major workforce and economic development issue for the city, leaders have said. Price, and school district and business leaders launched the Read Fort Worth initiative in 2016, focused on sending volunteer tutors into the schools to help significantly boost literacy rates, with a goal of having 100% of third graders reading on level by 2025.
“If you’re not awake to hire dire public education is, then I’ve not been doing my job,” Price said during her interview with Ferguson.
As Price spoke, Read Fort Worth tweeted, "Mayor Betsy Price sends clear message about the critical education challenges facing our city’s children and asks each of us to register our support for Read Fort Worth’s education issues."
The loquacious Price, whose address was billed by the Chamber as “Betsy Unplugged,” told Ferguson when she first became mayor 10 years ago, she received advice to stay away from education. “There were a significant number of people who said don’t talk about education, it’s not your bailiwick,” she said.
Price, during her address, highlighted a number of accomplishments related to early childhood learning, secondary education, and workplace policy that she’s helped lead on, and touted the City of Fort Worth’s first-ever parental leave policy, recently implemented.
“I would challenge all of you to look it as well,” Price, who also used part of her address to announce the winners of her 2021 Best Place for Working Parents Innovators awards, said. “Family friendly is business-friendly.”
Price choked up near the end of her address as she thanked her family for their support.
She highlighted several other topics, including the city’s financial health (she took over as mayor during a deep recession, and led controversial changes that stabilized employees’ pensions); fitness initiatives such as FitWorth for families and BlueZones Project Fort Worth certification as a demonstration city for healthy living practices; bicycling for exercise and as a mode of alternative transportation; regional co-operation on mobility; collaborations with business that helped the city respond to the pandemic; and progress on race relations and equity.
Price urged citizens to support the new police chief Neal Noakes, and to listen to a full range of perspectives as the city moves ahead on issues of justice and equity.
Price urged business to support the Chamber of Commerce, which implemented a major multi-faceted economic development plan but was unable to raise the money for it. The chamber and city teamed together to work on new economic plans that demonstrated Dallas is far ahead of Fort Worth on economic development.
“It’s a marketing game now,” Price said. “We have to market this city…Do you want a strong chamber, and, if so, get involved and help lead and be a part of that. If we don’t keep Fort Worth moving forward, then we will stagnate.”
The retired Dallas Cowboys star Emmitt Smith, former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, and former President George W. Bush appeared in video tributes to the mayor during her address.
Smith, a sometime-bicycling partner of Price’s, lauded her for her accomplishments in health and fitness, which he called her “proudest accomplishment.”
“I’ve ridden bikes with him several times,” Price joked to Ferguson, adding Smith nearly “killed” her on one ride by going 25 miles per hour, but that she nearly “killed him” on another ride they did when it was 102 degrees.
“Fort Worth’s well-being continues to go up on the scale, while the nation’s as a whole is going down,” she said.
Rawlings, elected the same year as Price, but who decided against running for re-election one term earlier than Price, recalled the numerous trips he and Price took to promote the region.
“Who stayed up the latest and was the most fun on those trips?” Rawlings asked in his tribute.
“Clearly, I did, or he wouldn’t ask the question,” Price joked in response. “I do like a little tequila, and I do like to have a good time.”
She noted the region’s biggest economic engine, Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, rose in market share during the pandemic, even with traffic substantially down. “We’ve got to work together,” she said.
Bush, the final tribute, retold a story that President Lyndon Johnson once told: “When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.”