How Did We Get Into this Mess?

Becky Snyder spoke to the LGISD school board at Monday night’s meeting about what she believes lead up to the situation that school districts are having to deal with in relation to library books. Here is her message: I’m sure by now, you might not look forward to the first part of these meetings. You have important things to take care of, yet the focus of every meeting is library books. I am grateful that you continue to work for the students, staff, and citizens in La Grange ISD. It is a tough job that has been made tougher by elected officials from other places. For a few months, I have been pondering how we got here; not just La Grange ISD but also other school districts across the state. Here are my thoughts cut to under five minutes. After the murder of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, many in power were looking for a way to push back. At about that same time, Representative Matt Krause of the Fort Worth area decided to challenge Ken Paxton in the 2022 primary.

Since he didn’t have statewide name recognition at the time, he needed to get his name in the news. In 2021, he sent out a list that his staff put together of over 800 books that he said, “might make students feel discomfort, guild, anguish, or distress because of their race or sex.” If you look at the list, you realize he meant books that might make straight white kids feel bad. The list went to every school district in the state asking for an accounting of which books the district had, how many copies, and how much money had been spent on them. Some districts complied while others ignored the request. It did get his name in the news statewide. It also started a panic that CRT was being taught in our public schools.

Critical Race Theory is a topic for upper level and graduate classes at the university level. Hence, many of us had never heard of it until several years ago. In spite of existing for over 40 years, CRT became the catch phrase that the ill-informed use to attack public education. It is highly doubtful that CRT has ever been mentioned in La Grange ISD or any other school district. It was never taught at the high school level. Historical facts like red lining, poll taxes and literacy tests to vote were probably taught in US history classes. Those are facts and should be taught no matter how uncomfortable that discussion seems to be for some. Teaching facts is not CRT. As of March of this year, 44 states have taken action to restrict the teaching of CRT or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism.

Texas is one of only 18 states that implemented such restrictions. Twenty-five states rejected attempts at restrictions. Six states didn’t even feel the need to bring it up for discussion. It is still to be decided in one state.

Now back to Matt Krause. He withdrew from the AG race before the primary to run for a county office, but the damage was done. Others took advantage of the media attention his list received to begin an attack on public schools. Our governor, who wasn’t really pushing vouchers at the time, suddenly jumped on the parental choice bandwagon. Our Lt. Governor had always advocated that charter schools, which are public schools, were the most effective mechanism for school choice. Suddenly, he was on the parental choice bandwagon.

Their support pushed the baseless claim that public schools were handing out pornography in the library and teaching “woke” curricula. Rallies were held across the state mostly at private religious schools. I attended the rally in Giddings in an attempt to understand this viewpoint.

At this same time, our Lt. Governor was promising to cut property taxes without providing another source of funding for public education. The attacks on public schools continued and everything came to a head when the property taxes rollback was passed, but vouchers for private schools were not. The governor continued to hold back much needed replacement funds through several special sessions which left schools scrambling to cover the shortfall.

Meanwhile, the attacks continue from those who stand to benefit most from school vouchers, religious groups and homeschool organizations.

I have learned a lot about La Grange ISD from attending almost every school board meeting for nearly a year. I also volunteer one morning a week at one of the schools. This is a great district with great staff and students. It will continue to provide a great education to all students and can provide even more if the state holds up its obligation for school funding. We as a community should be fighting against the state to get the funds promised when the tax roll back occurred.