The Fayette County Record
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Letter to the Editor

By Cindy Rodibaugh Flatonia

Spotlight on TASB

To the Editor:

Texas Gov. Abbott has declared January School Board Recognition Month and issued the following proclamation: “To catch a glimpse of the Texas of tomorrow, we need only look into the classrooms of today.” The proclamation also acknowledged the importance of locally-elected boards. “...Individual schools and districts are answerable to the people through elected school boards. These boards set a vision for their district based on students’ needs and community values.” (https://www.tasb.org/ services/communications-andpr/ recognition-programs/schoolboard- recognition-month.aspx) The Fayette County Record paid tribute to the Fayette County school board volunteers in last Friday’s edition (01/13/23). I am thankful to the paper for paying tribute and I am thankful for all school board members.

I am curious about the local school board’s response to the Texas Association of School Board’s (TASB) recent “instruction” to schools “to allow genderconfused students to use the restroom of the opposite sex, even if other students and their parents raise concerns.” The TASB website states their mission is to, “…promote educational excellence for Texas schoolchildren through advocacy, visionary leadership, and high-quality services to school districts.”

I fail to see how “instructing” schools to allow “genderconfused” students to invade the privacy of non-confused students can be an ‘advocacy’ or ‘visionary leadership’.

Who are the TASB? According toTexas ScoreCard, “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 with tax dollars.” As a taxpayer, I don’t see this “instruction” as a service to our school district. I see it as a political effort by non-elected bureaucrats who are invested in creating conflict for students.

If our school districts are truly independent (i.e. FISD) are our school board members in a position to reject this policy?

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