Two Texas school principals are in trouble for using their position to encourage subordinates to vote against Republicans who support school choice. It’s great to see people passionate about education. At the same time, they need to leave their politics out of it, especially since we’re paying their salaries out of our taxes. Two public school employees have again pushed their politics into the criminal territory.
Principals indicted
They’re both in elementary schools in Denton, Texas. Lindsey and Jesus Lujan, a husband and wife team, used their internal mail system for political advertising. In Texas this is a class A misdemeanor.
Both sent emails to teachers and staffers encouraging them to vote for candidates that support government funding for schools and oppose school choice. Lindsey offered a 30 minute break to staffers open to voting early and giving them a list of candidates labeled either “friendly” or “unfriendly” to government funding.
Two @DentonISD admins, Jesus and Lindsay Lujan, were charged April 2 with unlawful use of internal mail system for political advertising—a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine ➡️ https://t.co/NtihNLd9Fh #TxEd #TXLege #DontDoTheCrime
— Erin Anderson (@TrueTexasTea) April 4, 2024
Principals crossed the line
Jesus tried to be more careful. His email suggested people not look at party lines but instead be “purple minded”, telling staffers to “vote for candidates who support public education and school funding.” This is the couple’s second time being watched. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton settled an earlier electioneering lawsuit with them just a couple weeks back, Feb. 22.
Paxton had said,
“It is absolutely improper for publicly funded entities like school districts to engage in electioneering as Denton ISD has done. Government officials everywhere are on notice that I will use every legal remedy available to me to stop school districts from influencing or coercing their employees to vote any particular way, especially when a district uses taxpayer resources and money to do so.”
Principals shouldn’t be doing this
The school put out a statement,
“Denton ISD and the Texas Attorney General’s Office previously settled this case on Friday, March 1. As stated previously, we agree that election laws should be followed. Our Board of School Trustees adopted board policies in 2018 and 2021 regarding elections and campaign ethics, and we train all Trustees and Administrators on these policies annually. It is our expectation that these policies be followed.”
Our elections are vulnerable to abuse in more than one way, this illustrates another. The fight to keep government spending under control has to happen on every level.
