Parents with children enrolled in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) want more transparency from the troubled district.
The latest poll conducted by The Dallas Express surveyed a sample of DISD parents, asking them whether they support the idea of their local public school system being more transparent. Roughly 53% of respondents answered in the affirmative.
Some 17% answered “No” to the question, and the remainder of respondents (30%) registered “Unsure/Don’t know.”
Commenting on the poll’s results, local activist Kelly Neidert of Protect Texas Kids told The Dallas Express in an emailed statement, “Parents deserve transparency from Dallas ISD. Lack of transparency means lack of accountability, which is very evident here. DISD is scandal-plauged [sic] and severely mismanaged, yet district leadership never seem to face any consequences. This needs to change.”
DISD has been the subject of a number of scandals in recent years, including allegations of financial malfeasance, grade manipulation, and even gross negligence when it comes to workplace safety.
Still, voters will get a chance to have their say this election cycle and register their approval or disapproval of the status quo in DISD Districts 2, 6, and 8.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, DISD’s reputation among district parents, staff, and residents has been suffering, so much so that many blame it for Dallas’ recent population loss. The dynamic is such that the city has become an outlier compared to the greater North Texas region, which has been going through somewhat of a population boom.
Concerned parents are likely to seek residence elsewhere if they can, since nearby school systems around DISD regularly yield considerably better student outcomes.
Plano ISD, Richardson ISD, Irving ISD, and Frisco ISD all had on-time graduation rates higher than 90% last school year, with Frisco coming in at 99%, according to the latest Texas Education Agency accountability reports.
For its part, DISD only managed to graduate 81.1% of its Class of 2022 in four years.