Texas conservatives against liberal-based training for school administrators and trustees last week launched an alternative program focusing on education instead of a “woke” agenda.
James Dunn, founding president of the Gulf Coast Community Action Agency (GCCAA) in Angleton, Texas, told The Epoch Times his nonprofit was recently approved to offer training for superintendents and elected school board trustees.
“We’re very excited about that,” Dunn said, adding that Texas’ 1,200 Independent School Districts (ISD) now have a choice regarding training.
The state requires elected school board members to attend continuing education training, which is currently dominated by the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA).
Dunn, a former school superintendent, said his organization would focus on training administrators in good governance and fiscal responsibility, free from social issues that are better left to parents for guidance.
“Parents are concerned their rights are being taken away,” Dunn said. “They send their kids to be taught reading, writing, arithmetic—not transgender, not socialization issues, but the basics.”
Dunn said that teacher unions have hijacked the profession and incorporated a left-of-center political agenda into training.
Julie Pickren, who serves on the GCCAA board and is a former Brazoria ISD trustee, said that as a conservative, she often felt uncomfortable at trustee training sessions that went against her principles.
Pickren, also running for the State Board of Education, pointed to the September TASB/TASA conference in San Antonio, where the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas presented transgender student speakers and advocated for LGBT rights in schools.
In general, the training she attended while a school board trustee tended to be “very woke, very radical left,” she said.
Pickren recalls having to attend a training session in 2019 presented by trustees with Houston ISD, which—with an 82 percent graduation rate—she said is one of the lowest performing districts in Texas and operates at a high budget deficit.
She feels the new training service will offer a much-needed alternative for more conservative districts that focus on educational goals and responsible use of taxpayer funds.
The goal is to provide training once a month at various locations around the state, Dunn said.
Pickren said training should help school districts to be successful in their mission of educating children while guarding against potentially harmful content such as LGBT and “pornography” in libraries.
“You have to protect children mentally and physically,” she said. “What you have now is a breakdown in trust between parents and their school districts.”
