Elections Matter: Book Banning Edition

Source: San Antonio Current.

Richardson ISD and Frisco ISD had school board elections last year. In both cases, some candidates objected to being characterized as being "book banners." The outcomes in the two elections were quite different. The book banners lost in RISD. They won in Frisco ISD. The consequences are now being felt.

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FRISCO, Texas — Board members for the Frisco Independent School District voted to permanently remove five titles from district shelves Wednesday evening after a state Republican lawmaker challenged 28 books to be reviewed within the district weeks ago.

State Rep. Jared Patterson of the 106th District appealed to the board to review the titles after they had been vetted and deemed appropriate by parents, staff and administrators.

Source: WFAA.

First, I have a problem with school boards that allow for appeals to the board of trustees of decisions like this. Trustees should be setting policy, not executing policy and not acting like judges when parents don't like how teachers execute policy. They hire a superintendent for that. They are politicians, not educators with the experience and training needed to overrule the considered judgment of committees of parents, professional staff and administrators.

Second, Jared Patterson. Here's the Richardson connection to this story. I had coffee with Patterson in 2013 when he was challenging Angie Chen Button in District 112. I identified him as a tea party movement conservative then. I actually found Button to be the better candidate in her primary race against him. Patterson lost and moved to Frisco where he found an electorate more to his liking. Here's what I wrote in 2013:

• "Angie Chen Button Draws a Primary Challenge"
• "District 112: Race to the Right"

In case I didn't say it enough in 2021, thank you RISD voters for keeping legislators like Jared Patterson and trustees like the Frisco ISD school board far away from Richardson. (Not that Angie Chen Button is a defender of public schools: "Angie Chen Button Equates Public Schools with Mao's China" But Jared Patterson thinks Angie Chen Button isn't conservative enough. So there's that.)