10.25.23
“LGBTQ Lies Being Forced Into Texas Public Schools”
By Donna Garner
Through the years, TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) and TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) have made themselves the “last word.”
When Congress or the Texas Legislature passes a new law, school boards basically do nothing to implement it until they see how TASA is going to interpret the law for them, and then TASB follows suit.
TASA and TASB put their own leftist spin on things, and that is how it comes down the pike for Texas public schools to implement.
The most recent egregious example is TASB’s radically pro-transgender guidance document released in Jan. 2023 and spewed all over the Texas public schools by TASA and TASB’s multi-thousands of members.
***To read the Jan. 2023 radically pro-transgender guidance from TASB: https://www.tasb.org/services/legal-services/tasb-school-law-esource/students/documents/legal_issues_related_to_transgender_students.pdf/
THIS IS HOW TASA AND TASB OPERATE
While I was teaching full-time in the Texas public schools, I decided over a two-year span to see for myself what happened at our local school board meetings. I stayed from the beginning of the meetings until the end. (I only missed one school board meeting during those two years.)
I heard countless examples of TASA and TASB’s deliberate “misinterpretations.”
On one occasion, I went back to the legislator who actually wrote and successfully got a specific law passed. I watched as our local school board and administrators defied the law because of what TASA and TASB told them to do. When I shared this with the legislator, he was furious and said, “We pass the laws, but TASA and TASB interpret them and pressure local school districts to fall in line.”
Through the years, TASB and TASA (sister organizations) train school board members to believe that the superintendent is in an equal position with them. That is not the correct “seating” arrangement. The school board members are elected; the supe is not.
The school board is to have the authority over the supe; however, what actually happens is that the supe basically controls what the school board decides to do by having his staff present a one-sided picture.
Over the years, TASA and TASB have become the voice of authority; and local parents and taxpayers have been silenced.
HOW DO TASA AND TASB STAY IN CONTROL
TASA and TASB both require “dues,” and those dues come from the taxpayers’ pockets.
Then TASA and TASB use those dues to pay for big-time lobbyists who go to Austin and lobby the legislature for more school funding. That funding, of course, has to come from the taxpayers.
In essence, TASA and TASB are lobbying us taxpayers to raise taxes on ourselves!
To join professional organizations, classroom teachers have to pay for their own dues and convention expenses and so should the school board members and administrators. If they want to belong to professional organizations, they should pay their own way.
I predict if that were to happen, TASA and TASB would lose their control because of plunging numbers of members.
Carroll ISD needs to be commended for being the first school district in Texas to announce that they will be leaving TASB by the end of 2023.
Now what Carroll ISD and all public schools need to do is to stop paying for school administrators’ dues to TASA. If school administrators want to join TASA, let them use their own money – not dues that come from our taxpayers’ dollars.
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10.24.23 – Texas Scorecard
“Texas Senator Calls Out Texas Association of School Boards”
by Emily Medeiros
Excerpts from this article: https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-senator-calls-out-texas-association-of-school-boards/
Republican State Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston is calling out the Texas Association of School Boards for its updated legal guidance advising government schools to affirm gender confusion in minors.
TASB is a statewide taxpayer-funded lobbying group for school officials that provides products and services to school districts.
All 1,024 Texas school boards are TASB members and pay their dues to TASB with tax dollars.
Earlier this year, Texas Scorecard reported on the new legal guidance released by TASB.
The organization updated a 13-page document advising school districts on the “legal rights of transgender students.”
…It also described puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones as accepted treatments for both minors and adults.
TASB also instructed schools to allow gender-confused students to use the restroom of the opposite sex, even if other students and their parents raise concerns.
Additionally, the organization advised public school employees to use a student’s “preferred name” at school, while using their legal name on official documents in case the parents disapprove of the student’s “gender identity.”
Middleton raised alarms on X, saying this document is why TASB should no longer have the ability to train school boards in the state.
“Shocking training document for Texas school boards reads like it was written by the Biden administration and their radical gender ideology war to harm kids and run over parents,” wrote Middleton.
“Taxpayer funded lobbying group, Texas Association of School Board (TASB), says boys can go in girls restrooms and showers, and that schools may be able to hide information from parents about a child trying to change their gender at school.”
“This document is Exhibit A why TASB should no longer get to train every school board in this state,” he added.
Despite TASB’s guidance, Katy Independent School District, Carroll ISD, and Keller ISD adopted policies that separate bathrooms and other personal spaces by birth sex and gave guidance on handling gender ideology in schools.
In addition to restroom guidance, Katy ISD’s policy ensured that pronouns used are based on the child’s biological sex, and faculty are prohibited from teaching or providing instructional materials on gender ideology.
Carroll ISD and Keller ISD’s policies enacted a prohibition on teachers being compelled to use ‘preferred pronouns.”
In March, Carroll ISD was the first school district to announce they would be leaving TASB by the end of 2023.
State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) has called on other districts to follow Carroll’s example.
MORE INFORMATION
2.6.23 -- “TASB’s Transgender Agenda Being Shoved at Texas Public Schools” -- From Donna Garner -- https://donnagarner.org/2-6-23-tasbs-transgender-agenda-being-shoved-at-texas-public-schools-3/