Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is currently on a crusade to punish any school district that speaks out against school vouchers, and he is executing the crusade through several civil lawsuits.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Huffman ISD is the latest district in Paxton’s crosshairs. In February, Huffman ISD Superintendent Benny Soileau held a meeting with teachers and staff urging them to support Texas Republican primary candidates that blocked school vouchers in the most recent legislative session. The program, a pet project of Governor Greg Abbott that would let families use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school tuition, is universally opposed by Texas public schools because it will lead to deep cuts if students leave.
Paxton is suing the district for illegal electioneering by accusing Soileau of using state assets and resources to promote candidates. Court filings show Huffman denies Soileau’s actions constituted electioneering as none of the people he spoke to were eligible to vote for the candidates in question.
Huffman is the sixth public school district to draw Paxton’s ire. Denton, Frisco, Castleberry, Aledo and Denison ISDs have all received legal challenges from the attorney general’s office. While Paxton is prohibited by law from pursuing criminal cases in electioneering, the matter can be passed along to local prosecutors to pursue if they wish. This led to misdemeanor charges in Denton ISD’s case. Other districts have settled with Paxton’s office.
Of course, Paxton’s rage against electioneering in education settings is only aimed at those who oppose school vouchers. When Abbott went on a whistlestop tour last year to drum up support from conservative Christian private schools, many heads of those schools openly asked for support for vouchers. This apparently does not count as electioneering even as these institutions seek tax exemptions and a flood of dollars from a voucher program. Only public schools are apparently forbidden from encouraging political opposition around vouchers.
There is no doubt that public school districts are in danger if vouchers pass in the next legislative session. In the various states that have passed similar systems, the money has overwhelmingly gone to wealthy people. That was the case in Oklahoma.
On top of that, the voucher system has made it far easier for conservative Christian communities to use state funds and resources to outright campaign for political candidates. In Arizona, Dream City Christian School rakes in money while hosting events for candidate Doanld Trump. It’s a clear case of public money being utilized for electioneering.
Which is supposedly the thing that Paxton is dead set against. Yet, he hasn’t spoken out against any of these systems, preferring full-throated support for vouchers instead. When Texas’s own Christian schools team up with the governor to influence voters to send these schools taxpayer dollars, Paxton has no qualm. Only public schools are required to stay silent, even as their existence is on the line. Paxton’s quest for election integrity is a one-way street.
