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Earlier this month, a school official at Borman Elementary in the Denton school district sent an email pressing school employees to support anti-school choice candidates in the upcoming Republican primary. Employees were told that their time would be “covered” and that the school expected everyone to vote.
This is not simply an official calling for Texans to do their civic duty, but rather pressuring employees to specifically participate in the Republican primary and vote for certain candidates. This is both improper electioneering and a misuse of official information.
The Texas Attorney General has already called the communication “illegal” and set up a school electioneering complaint form. The powerful Senator Paul Bettencourt has said “we need to have a hearing concerning electioneering within ISDs, then I will file additional legislation if necessary.”
This is part of a disturbing and brazen pattern of school employees using their leadership positions and official resources to coordinate lobbying and political activism. Last fall, several schools and districts sent similar emails pressuring staff to call their legislators to oppose the bill creating education savings accounts.
To add insult to injury, Borman Elementary has more important problems to focus on: just 43% of students can read at grade level and only 32% can do math at grade level. That might be why officials there would be afraid of giving parents more power to determine where their kids go to school.