Democratic nominee for governor Wendy Davis said Thursday that she was happy to see the community debate whether the Dallas school district should govern itself without state involvement.
But she declined to say whether the district should go through with it.
“It’s opening up a conversation that’s giving people an opportunity to talk about making effective choices in their own community school district and it’s raising a level of awareness,” Davis said after a speech at Paul Quinn College. “I’m pleased that local decision makers will decide this question for themselves. There’s a lot of controversy on both sides of the issue.”
A group called Support Our Public Schools is pushing the idea of allowing DISD to take advantage of “home rule” and be free of state-imposed restrictions on governance, contracts and curriculum.
But the rollout for the proposal was a disaster, leaving Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to concede that the effort was fuzzy to many residents.
“Regardless of the outcome, I’m pleased to see that in this local community a conversation about doing what we can do at a local level to improve our districts is part of the conservation here,” Davis said.
Last week, Republican nominee Greg Abbott said Rawlings and supporters of home rule for DISD have a “good heart,” and he hailed the focus on improving schools and enhancing local control. But he also declined to firmly support or oppose the idea.