In the wake of Carroll ISD’s school board terminating its membership with the Texas Association of School Boards, the organization is now threatening to sue schools that leave the association.
Until now, TASB has claimed all Texas public school districts as members, but the association recently came under fire for controversial actions like promoting critical race theory and allowing gender-confused students to use the restroom of the opposite sex. TASB has been criticized for using dues collected by taxing entities to lobby against parents and taxpayers.
Last week, the Carroll ISD school board passed a resolution that would terminate their membership with TASB by the end of the calendar year. The board also directed the superintendent to find alternative means of obtaining services provided by TASB.
In a letter to the Texas Council of School Attorneys, the association claimed a school district that decides to leave is prohibited from using the copyrighted resources without written permission from the association. These resources include TASB’s letter codes and coding structure, consulting services, policy drafting and processing, and other legal or training materials implemented by the association.
“As you can imagine, we would consider it inappropriate and a violation of TASB’s copyright for a school attorney to use one school district client’s proprietary TASB content to benefit another non-member client.”
The association also said it retains all rights to legal policies and unadopted local model policies or templates implemented from TASB Policy Service.
State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Midlothian), who has filed legislation prohibiting school districts from joining organizations that use tax-payer-funded lobbying, laughed at the letter.
Still laughing about this.
In other words: “if you don’t send us tons of $$ to hire liberal lobbyists, then you can’t use our fancy numbering system (that we developed at taxpayer expense) in your policy manuals.”
😂 #txlege #txed #LeaveTASB @tasbnews https://t.co/xvIZg24WkW
— Brian Harrison (@brianeharrison) April 1, 2023
State Rep. Nate Schatzline (R–Fort Worth) also posted on Twitter, saying the recent letter is a scare tactic so TASB can “retain their monopoly on TX public schools and deter other school boards from leaving.”
.@tasbnews recent letter to CSA Attorneys is a scare tactic to retain their monopoly on TX public schools and deter other school boards from leaving their services in the wake of @Carrollisd courageous exit. TASB seeks to limit competition and stifle the search for the best… pic.twitter.com/HGlaA9vv37
— Nate Schatzline (@NateSchatzline) March 31, 2023
So far, Carroll ISD is the only school district to announce its decision to leave the association, but many legislators are hopeful that more will follow.
