The Texas Association of School Boards hosted a conference speaker who allegedly told its members to withhold raises for teachers so they could use it as political leverage.
Rob McClelland, a board member at Dripping Springs ISD, made the allegations in an interview with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Buck Gilcrease, the CEO of Moak Casey, a Texas lobbyist group focused on education, allegedly delivered the speech at a TASB’s Summer Leadership Institute in San Antonio from July 12 to 15. Moak Casey also sponsors TASB events.
“Before we got into the meat and potatoes of school finance, the CEO, who I’ve never met before in my life, starts going on a rant … a rant about the failure of school board trustees, the failure of teachers to vote a certain way to persuade the legislature to do certain things,” McClelland said. “[Gilcrease] was encouraging us to utilize compensation as a weapon to try to change the way our teachers would vote.”
McClelland said Gilcrease’s comments were not received well.
“And that was the point that I got up and walked out — and there were a few people who got up and followed me,” he said. “Because I was not going to subject myself to that stupidity — to weaponize compensation against our educators. I mean, it’s ridiculous, right? It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Gilcrease did not respond to DX‘s request for comment.
Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield, the deputy executive director of TASB, said she “heard varying accounts of what was said in this session.” She emphasized that speakers at the conference did not represent her group’s views.
“If the comment was made, the viewpoint described does not represent a TASB position, nor one that we agree with or support,” Dunne-Oldfield told The Dallas Express. ”As a nonpartisan member organization, TASB takes no position on how people should vote.”
McClelland said one point of emphasis at the TASB conference was that “school districts are having budget problems.”
Two school administrators, married to each other, who worked for Denton County ISD, were indicted in April on electioneering charges, as previously reported by DX. The couple allegedly sent emails instructing employees to vote in the primary election for candidates who oppose school choice. The indictment was for an “unlawful use of internal mail system for political advertising” under the Texas Election Code.
Republicans in the Texas statehouse declared intentions to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying, a common tactic from local school districts, as reported by Texas Scorecard.