When I first started working for the Texas Education Agency most people I knew had never heard of the Texas State Board of Education. I would usually have to explain to people that the SBOE is extremely important in Texas education, and each of the 15 SBOE districts is larger than a Congressional district. I remember thinking what a shame it was that such an important board gets such public acknowledgement.
My how times have changed! In the last several years, the SBOE has had a few members whose grandstanding and partisan politics have made the SBOE the subject of attention from not just the Texas press, but from the national media. Unfortunately, the attention has not been about our wonderful teachers, principals, and active parents who are doing their best to make sure our children receive the best possible education. Instead, the attention has been all about board members who are more interested in getting attention than in educating our children.
The result has been lots of media coverage for those board members which seems positive in the conservative media, but much more damaging publicity from the mainstream national press. Board members have made all of Texas look bad by their efforts to remove Thomas Jefferson from a list of enlightenment thinkers, in one location changing the words “slave trade” to “Atlantic triangular trade”, and other non-sensical moves. They even ignored sound fiscal policy and voted to invest a portion of Texas education dollars in risky real estate deals.
These Board members know that the majority of Texans do not want their extremist views and attention-grabbing tactics on the Board, so they are hiding from debates in which they would have to explain their actions to voters. They’ve even gone so far as to call one debate sponsor – the League of Women Voters – “partisan.” Can you imagine Sam Houston or Stephen F. Austin running from a bunch of women who want to ask them questions about their positions on the issues? No, I can’t either.
Let me be clear about why I am an alternative to these current Board members: I do not want to be interviewed on Fox News. And I really don’t want to see Jon Stewart making fun of me on television. All I want to do on the SBOE is to attend meetings on issues like textbook standards and how best to lower the dropout rate of our schoolchildren. My work ethic will not allow me to be distracted from the important issues just to grab media attention for myself.
How can you help? First, you can urge my opponent to attend a debate and explaining her positions so that voters can make an informed choice on Election Day. Also, you can contribute to my campaign so that I can continue my uphill battle to get the word out. It’s difficult to inform the voters of my common sense positions when my opponent runs away from debates and aligns herself with the extremists who get free publicity on Fox News. But with your help, I’ll turn the SBOE back into an organization that focuses on improving the education for all Texas schoolchildren.