Q & A from State House Forum in LG

The Fayette County Republican Party hosted a forum Feb. 12 for the four Republican candidates running for Texas House District 85.

The newly drawn Texas House District 85 includes Austin, Colorado, Fayette, Waller, and Wharton counties along with a portion of Fort Bend County. Previously, Fayette County was part of House District 13, represented by Ben Leman.

The four candidates are Stan Kitzman, a former Waller County commissioner; Fred Roberts, an insurance business owner from Fayetteville; Art Hernandez, a Waller County school teacher; and Phil Stephenson, the incumbent state representative for House District 85.

Many of the questions the candidates answered at the forum involved education and social issues.

The very first question asked the candidates whether they agreed with the following statement: “Most Republicans believe Texas schools should focus on teaching basic skills, civics, American history as well as banning critical race theory.”

All four said they agreed. “One of the things I’ve done in my life is being a classroom teacher,” Kitzman said. “I’ve taught government, economics, U.S. history and a lot of Texas history. In my class, we read the Constitution line by line and the Declaration of Independence line by line, and we discussed those things. My students, at least once in their life, have seen those documents and had them discussed. The idea of getting into things that disparage this country and don’t point out that we live in the greatest country the world has ever known is abhorrent to me. The fact that we have teachers who don’t believe in our form of government and everything the flag stands for is wrong. Yes, I agree with the statement and I’m proud to have taught my students to be Americans and Texans.”

Roberts, who has previously served on the Pasadena ISD School Board, said the State has over-regulated public education.

“Your school is regulated over how many kids they have in AP (advanced placement) classes,” Roberts said. “They’ve put this on the principals to say, ‘Youve got 1,000 kids in a school, you need to have a majority of them in the AP class.’ That’s wrong because not every kid should be in an AP class. Some should be in a regular class, and some of them need to be in an assisted learning class. We’ve got to get the government out of education.”

Hernandez said he has advocated to ban critical race theory (CRT) in the schools where he has worked.

“In Waller ISD and Katy ISD, I’ve been an advocate to end CRT,” Hernandez said. “Now it’s called ‘social emotional learning.’ The reason I do that is because the schools are not equipped to deal with it. The schools are not there to be grandparents, to teach morality. That’s not the purpose of the school. We are going to fail our children. The government is trying to replace parents. If you want to lower your taxes, we have to get rid of trying to replace parents. Let that happen at home. Let’s teach kids what they normally learn: math, English, writing, some science.”

Stephenson said state leaders need to do more than just denouncing concepts like CRT.

“As a state representative, I’ve fought this battle now for five sessions to try and get things changed,” Stephenson said. We have $15.5 billion sitting in our 1,029 school districts. Why aren’t they using that to pay for better teachers? The only ones who get paid, who make lots of money, are the administrators. Administration is where there is the biggest problem. I’ve seen this every day. I’ve been on that committee. We haven’t done anything to solve that problem.”

The candidates were also asked whether parents should have the ability to select schools for their children, public or private, with state funding dollars following the students.

“I believe in more freedom and less government,” Kitzman said. “You’re the parents, grandparents, head of the family, and you get to decide how to raise your children. The way things are structured, if you have to seek an alternative to public school, then you should be able to take the tax money you’re paying and use that. That’s fair to you family. It goes with your rights as a free people to decide what’s best for your family, how to raise your kids and what their education ought to be. You should be able to use those funds.”

Roberts said he supports education vouchers.

“I have no problem with vouchers,” Roberts said. “I think the parent has the right to make the decision. But there’s got to be a process. There are people out there who would say ‘I’m homeschooling my kid, now how much money do I get?’ On average there’s $2,500 set to the school per student. There’s a lot of dads out there who shouldn’t be dads and would probably take that $2,500. I don’t have a problem with that money following the child as long as that child is getting an education. I don’t want to be put in a position where all these people are taking the money and running off with it. We’ve seen that before in other areas.

“A lot of those Democrats we know, if you send them a check for $2,500, do you think they’re going to educate their kids?” Roberts added. “Not all the time. I think what they’re going to do is buy beer with it. Buy drugs with it. Little Junior is going to have to suffer and not be able to read and write. Yes I think the money needs to follow the students. I don;t have a problem with the voucher system. I would like to see a process where you can test those kids at the end of the year and see if their parents are actually educating them.”

Hernandez said he favors “managed competition” in education.

“Yes, the money should follow the child,” Hernandez said. “Public schools in the rural areas are extremely important. Sometimes they’re the largest employer. It’s called ‘managed competition.’ The solution for the cities and the solution for rural counties are different. That’s why I’m an advocate for local control. It should be up to the community to decide what happens. With the TEA (Texas Education Agency), they go to the school boards and tells them ‘You’re going to either chose A, B or C curriculum.’ We need as much local control as possible. Yes, the money should follow the child, but each community should make that decision.”

Stephenson said he favors a system where the state directly pays for educational expenses if the parents chose a private school.

“The money should follow the kid,” Stephenson said. “That means the money goes to private schools and the parents don’t get to handle the money. Also, I want to make sure that we follow the Constitution. Folks, we can sit here and yell and scream all we want to, but we’re limited by the Constitution. We’re lawmakers, we’re not enforcers. I said ten years ago, ‘Why are we not letting the money follow the kids?’ Because stockpiling is a big deal in the big schools. Like I just told you, there’s $15.5 billion sitting in the fund balances of Texas schools – 1,029 of them. Why is that money sitting there? The Democrats, I asked them about it. They said they need it for emergencies. But Texas isn’t exactly broke. That’s the problem. It’s your money sitting there in savings accounts. That’s the reason we’ve got to do this.”

The candidates were asked whether they would “aggressively work to pass legislation to ban castration, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital mutilation surgery on minor children for sex transition purposes.”

“Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve read in all of your life?” Roberts asked the moderator. “How people can even dream of that kind of stuff? I saw situations growing up, and I’m sure y’all all did to, there’s a young lady who played baseball with my youngest son. I’ll be truthful, they won the state championship. I’ll also be truthful with you and say the girl on that team was probably one of the best ball players there. We called her a tomboy for years until she got to high school. Then they called her the best-looking girl in school. She wanted to wear a dress and be a young lady.

“I will fight feverishly to make sure those things don’t happen,” Roberts added. “If somebody’s going to be castrated, let it be the dad. We’re not talking about cattle, horses or pigs here. We’re talking about human beings who are under 18 years old. What people want to do when they’re 21 or whatever the case may be, that’s their business. But you don;t do that to children. Child protective services ought to be chasing those parents talking about doing stuff like that. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I will be a banshee in the legislature for that.”

Hernandez said he supported the bill which died in committee last session that would have banned such practices.

“I can’t believe it died in committee,” Hernandez said. “We didn’t have enough people who had the courage to say, ‘I’ll stand up for my kids.’”

Stephenson said he is currently working on a ‘Parents Bill of Rights’ in the House that would address the issue.

“The answer is simple, get rid of the crazy people who are doing this,” Stephenson said. “We’re not going to do this to our kids. One thing we’re working on right now in the House, and the Governor said he supports it: we’re going to have a Parents Bill of Rights so we can get them out of that situation. Homeschooling is growing like crazy because we’re tired of people having these relationships. It’s sick. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. I blame the doctors for this stuff, too. In U.I.L. it’s a big thing, and we just passed a law that says you can’t be a man playing in a woman’s sport.”

Kitzman responded with the following: “Friends, we just went through a period where a doctor can lose their license if they try to give you hydroxychloroquine or prescription ivermectin to stop the COVID virus. I took it and I’m here because of that. I had a doctor with guts enough to do that. But we’ll take their license and threaten their professional ability, but when they are going to do these kinds of things to minor children, we let that happen without a problem. I agree, we go after the doctors also. That’s unprofessional conduct. There’s got to be a code of ethics that doesn’t allow them to do this to minor children.”

Learn more about the candidates by watching the complete forum on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/fcr. news or our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/ Fayettecountyrecord.