School board members were recently told in a conference to utilize teacher pay raises to apply political pressure on the state legislature over the issue of school choice.
At a conference hosted by the Texas Association of School Boards, Buck Gilcrease—CEO of educational consulting company Moak Casey—reportedly told school board members to withhold teachers’ pay increases this year to pressure lawmakers to advance an anti-school choice agenda. TASB is an organization that engages in taxpayer-funded lobbying.
Dripping Springs Independent School District board member Rob McClellan told the Texas Public Policy Foundation, “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.”
He also said Gilcrease “was encouraging us to utilize compensation as a weapon to try to change the way our teachers would vote.”
Further, McClellan stated he, and several other school board members, walked out of the meeting. Describing the idea as “stupidity,” he strongly rejected the proposal to weaponize pay raises against educators.
Though Moak Casey, an educational consulting company, is one of TASB’s top partners, TASB spokesperson Sylvia Wood distanced the company from the association.
“Organizations besides TASB often present at our events and all registrants are notified that the views expressed in presentations and materials offered by non-TASB staff are the views of the presenters only and do not necessarily reflect the views of TASB, its members, officers, directors, or staff,” Wood stated.
