1.16.25

"Put an End to Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying"

By Donna Garner

Have you ever wondered how these far-leftist agendas end up permeating our school systems throughout America?  

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. 

In our state, we have the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB). 

TASA and TASB end up controlling what takes place in the local schools because these sister organizations "interpret" legislation using their own particular spin.  

School administrators and local school boards end up falling in line with the "interpretation."  

While I was watching my local school board meetings, I heard countless examples of TASA's 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 had just watched as our local school board and administrators defied the actual law as written because of the way TASA and TASB had interpreted it for them.  

When I shared this with the legislator who wrote the law, 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 have trained school board members to believe that the superintendent is in an equal position with them. 

In Texas our school board members are elected; the superintendent is not. 

That differentiation should be clearly reflected even in the way the school board members are seated in the school board meetings. They should all sit in a particular area, and the superintendent should sit in a separate place. The school board is to have the authority over the superintendent.  

Also, what happens in these meetings so often is that the superintendent ends up controlling what the school board decides by having his/her 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. 

The voters elected the school board; but once elected, the members seemed to find themselves being unduly influenced by whatever TASA/TASB says. 

 

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, we taxpayers are paying TASA and TASB to raise taxes on ourselves!  

 

WHY NOT TREAT TASA/TASB MEMBERS THE WAY TEACHERS ARE TREATED?

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 TASA/TASB members had to pay their own dues and convention expenses, TASA and TASB would lose their control because of plunging numbers of members.

With the Legislature set to convene in the coming weeks, fiscal responsibility advocates are pressing for lawmakers to follow through on a ban to end taxpayer-funded lobbying. 

“Taxpayer-funded lobbying” does not just occur in the schools. This same practice is also taking place in cities and counties that hire lobbyists with local tax revenue. 

“A ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying has been proposed several times in Austin, and yet the measure has failed to become law,” Andrew McVeigh, president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility told Texas Scorecard. 

A recent study by the Huffines Liberty Foundation revealed that local governments spent about $75 million on registered lobbyists in 2021, not including the salaries of in-house lobbyists and funds funneled to pro-government associations such as the Texas Municipal League and *Texas Association of School Boards*—meaning the actual cost of taxpayer-funded lobbying is much higher.  

[*Please notice the name "Texas Association of School Boards."]

 

…Multiple lawmakers have filed measures for this session of the Texas Legislature to end the practice in 2025. 

12.26.24 -- "Advocates Press for a Ban on Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying in 2025" -- by Sydnie Henry -- Texas Scorecard -- https://texasscorecard.com/state/advocates-press-for-a-ban-on-taxpayer-funded-lobbying-in-2025/

 

TASB'S LEFTIST SPIN BY AFFIRMING GENDER CONFUSION IN MINORS

Here is an example of the way TASB influenced all Texas public schools to implement gender-affirming practices (e.g., puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, boys in girls' bathrooms and dressing rooms, preferred pronouns, and hiding such information from parents).  

Just think, we taxpayers paid for the TASB/TASA lobbyists to help perpetuate their leftist agenda. 

 

10.24.23 – “Texas Senator Calls Out Texas Association of School Boards” -- by Emily Medeiros -- Texas Scorecard -- https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-senator-calls-out-texas-association-of-school-boards/

Excerpts from this article: 

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.

All 1,024 Texas school boards are TASB members and pay their dues to TASB with tax dollars.

In 2023, 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 [TASB] 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.  

 

A FEW SCHOOLS DEFIED TASB'S MISDIRECTION

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.