In the horrible early months of the pandemic, Texas public school teachers were hailed as heroes, alongside our peers from across the nation and world. Families had a window into our work as they watched us scramble to teach their children through computer screens. They could see our love for kids and our expertise in action. Texas governor Greg Abbott sang our praises.

Three years later, according to Abbott, the 320,000 public school teachers who serve in our state-funded schools and hold state certifications have morphed into partisan propaganda peddlers.

The governor has been working hard in recent weeks to sell voters on his modified voucher program, which would give families up to $8,000 in public tax funds to pay for private school tuition. Unfortunately, in his desperation to get voters interested in this issue, Abbott has doubled down on his allegation that public school teachers are pushing a “radical woke” anti-curriculum in our classrooms, from kindergarten on up. Abbott’s logic: given the cesspool of radicalism our classrooms have become, unwitting Texas children need to be rescued from the clutches of scheming partisans.

I’ve worked in Texas public education for 25 years. In the dozens of faculties I’ve worked with as a teacher, a campus administrator, and a district manager, I’ve been struck by our overwhelming reticence to talk politics, even among our peers, much less in the classroom. We tend to be keenly aware that we are public school educators. We are ever mindful of our multiple stakeholders: the state, our district, our students, and their families. Those of us who do not honor professional boundaries risk negative appraisals, performance improvement plans, and contract nonrenewal.

Wait. I thought Abbott was responsible …

What is passing strange about Abbott’s line of reasoning is that he oversees the 8,000+ Texas public schools spread across more than 1,000 districts. The buck stops at his desk. He appoints the Commissioner of Education and members of the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC). He oversees the huge Texas Education Agency (TEA). All Texas public schools are under the state’s purview. Public school districts can even have their accreditation revoked and be closed.

If state-funded, state-certified teachers were running rogue in classrooms, the governor would surely be able to point to specific examples. Having presented no evidence to support his charge, it seems the governor is either disingenuous in his outrage, or he is just out of touch with the daily realities of teaching in the public schools he oversees. Since he’s held statewide office for over a decade now, that seems strange. We are a big state, but still.

The Narrow Path Girded by TEKS and STAAR

Every year since 1991, Texas public school teachers in grades 3 through 11 have been responsible for preparing our students to run the grueling gauntlet of high-stakes tests. (Our current assessment system is the STAAR, or State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness). The consequences of falling short on these high-stakes tests are varied and serious. They include the public shaming of a low accountability grade, increased district and state scrutiny, tight accountability for quick improvement, and job loss.

And STAAR isn’t the only set of tests our public schools are held accountable for. Each spring, the 20 percent of Texas public school students identified as English learners (or emergent bilinguals) must also succeed on TELPAS, the annual multi-faceted assessment of their language proficiency.

Since 1998, Texas public school teachers have been contractually obligated to teach the state curriculum codified in the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills, or TEKS. Given that our collective reputation and livelihood rest on our STAAR performance and other state accountability measures, public educators across the state are conditioned to always keep their eyes on the TEKS. Given the number of those rigorous standards, we rarely have time to slip in a fun activity or two, much less an advanced legal theory reserved for graduate school.

Relentless Focus

I have spent time in dozens of public schools and hundreds of classrooms. I taught for 14 years myself. I promise you, we weren’t sitting around musing about Marxism or CRT in our team meetings. We were talking TEKS. And STAAR. And lesson plans and benchmarks and intervention and absenteeism and mobility and motivation. The overarching rhetorical theme: How in the world are we going to get hundreds of children across the finish line given their learning gaps, their family and personal struggles, and the paucity of resources?

Money for Nothing …

The funniest part? Though the state has full oversight responsibility for public schools, it has no power over the private schools Abbott wants to funnel public funds to. As I understand it, most private schools understand the trade-off. They do not have to take the STAAR. They do not have to teach to the TEKS. They do not have to disclose their funding or dealings. Their teachers do not need state certification. For more than 180 years, Texas has kept its covenant: public tax dollars for public schools, held to account by the state. Now Abbott seeks to turn that covenant on its head, and truth along with it.

Of course, many public school teachers are becoming dispirited by the attacks from above. But perhaps if sabotaging public schools is the governor’s end goal, this situation suits him just fine.

Photo Credit for Cover Image: Close-up of teacher’s computer monitor. Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages. CC BY-NC 4.0

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