Texas school lobby groups spent your money to lobby against you

Robert Pratt

Our friends at the Texas Scorecard point out that the “Texas Association of School Administrators [TASA] and the Texas Association of School Boards [TASB] spend their days working to protect bureaucrats and hinder education reform. Both entities are subsidized by school districts out of their regular operating budgets.” Which really means taxpayers.

Here’s a quick review of just some of the legislation they opposed this year:

• SB 640: Local debt and bond transparency. They were for hiding what local debt and bonds really cost the taxpayer in the form of property taxes.
• SB 445: Disclosures of taxpayer-funded lobbying. They were for continuing to hide the practice of spending property tax money to advocate against the taxpayers.
• SB 2: Increased voter input in property tax hikes. They were for making sure taxpayers don’t automatically get to vote on large property tax increases above 4%.
• SB 13: Ban on government collecting dues for unions. They were for government continuing to enable unions and collect dues for them.
• SB 3: School choice and letting taxpayer money follow the parent/taxpayer to whichever school works best for their child. They were for government maintaining almost exclusive control of taxpayer money in the belief that government knows better than parents.
• SB 6: Preventing males from entering facilities and exposing themselves to females in showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms. They were for allowing males to enter little girls’ bathrooms and showers in schools.

“Whatever else their agendas, TASA and TASB take extreme positions at odds with the best interests of taxpayers, parents, teachers, and students,” reminds the Texas Scorecard.

And the folk at The Scorecard are right. Worse is that these groups use your money to lobby against you.