Oilmen target public schools
Right-wing activists have found another threeletter acronym to generate rage against teachers, a routine tactic two conservative billionaires have used for years to gut Texas public education.
The new bugaboo is Social and Emotional Learning, or SEL for short. Unlike CRT, or critical race theory, K-12 teachers have employed SEL since the 1990s to encourage children to develop self-esteem, manage emotions and empathize with others.
This new demagoguery is the latest in a decadeslong effort to rally parents against public schools, and it’s driving thousands of teachers from the field. Our future workforce and economic prosperity depend on countering the propaganda, demanding better from the State Board of Education, and guaranteeing our teachers professional working conditions.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation thinks SEL promotes child suicide and warned in a recent email blast that SEL is used to teach CRT and other concepts prohibited under Texas state law, like the “1619 Project.”
“I fear it is creating mental health problems in children,” TPPF Fellow Carol Swain wrote. “The question for Texas, like other states that have made efforts to remove critical-theory-based concepts from K-12 classrooms, is how to close and lock the door — to prevent social justice warriors and activist teachers from using SEL materials and their own values to evade the intent of ‘prohibited concepts’ legislation.”
The State Board of Education is meeting in Austin to develop a new statewide social studies standard. The anti-CRT legislation is so vague, confusing and anti-intellectual that teachers are
quitting rather than dealing with the madness, board member Aicha Davis said.
“We talk about teachers leaving in droves, and this is one of the reasons we had a lot of teachers leaving,” Davis said. “Because it caused so much fear, teachers were afraid to teach because of this.”
Even the anti-CRT law’s author, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, told the board he might amend the law next year because of the widespread confusion.
Texas is suffering from a massive teacher shortage after last year’s antimasking protests, book bans and accusations of “wokeness.” Conservatives have packed school board meetings to purge libraries, fire teachers and demand curriculums that match their political and religious views.
The right-wing attacks are part of a decades-long effort by two conservative oilmen and part-time preachers who want to destroy Texas’ K-12 education system as we know it. While many news outlets have covered this campaign in the past, CNN’s Ed Lavandera has the latest update.
Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks have long supported the most rightwing, anti-public education candidates. Dunn serves on the TPPF board and chairs the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility board. Wilks is the largest donor to Texas Right to Life. Both men finance Empower Texans, a political action committee considered the right’s enforcers.
All these organizations spread right wing propaganda and use scorecards, social media and email lists to coerce Republican elected officials to follow the billionaires’ agenda.
“It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple,” said state Sen. Kel Seliger, a conservative Republican retiring next year. “Really, really wealthy people who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it — and they get it.”
Seliger crossed Dunn and Wilks by defending rural public schools when, according to their associates, the self-professed fundamentalists “want to replace public education with private, Christian schooling,” CNN reported.
Their top priority is helping Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pass a school voucher bill that allows parents to spend state money to send their kids to private, religious schools, effectively defunding public schools. To inspire support for their plan, Patrick and his allies have set public schools up for failure by cutting their budgets.
Texas lawmakers have shrunk state spending per student over the last 15 years. Occasionally, they’ll authorize an increase, only to cut it later. Texas spends $9,900 per student, while the national average is $13,185, the Education Data Initiative reported.
Political vilification, school shooters and poor compensation have led two-thirds of teachers to consider leaving the profession, the Texas American Federation of Teachers found in polling its members.
Texas already ranks 35th in the nation for pre-K through 12 education, U.S. News and World Report determined. WalletHub ranked the quality of Texas’s education as 33rd in the country. An exodus of experienced teachers will only worsen matters.
Few Texans can afford the $30,000 or more that a top private school charges, and most do not want their child enrolled in a fundamentalist indoctrination camp. If we want our children and state to prosper in a competitive global economy, we must defend our public schools from those who would destroy them.
Tomlinson, named 2021 columnist of the year by the Texas Managing Editors, writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his new “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter atHoustonChronicle.com/TomlinsonNewsletter. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com