Dr. Natalie Blasingame raises her hand to vote for allowing religious councilors in the school district during the Cy-Fair ISD board meeting.
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD School Board Trustees Scott Henry, from left, and Natalie Blasingame listen to a speaker during a school board meeting in 2022.
Homebuyers and CEOs looking to relocate always ask the same thing: “How are the schools?” Christian nationalist trustees at Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Texas’ third-largest public school district, just made answering that question awkward and embarrassing.
Six school board members voted to ban teachers from discussing how vaccines saved millions from polio, smallpox and COVID. Teachers may no longer highlight the benefits of living in the nation’s most culturally diverse region. Nor will students learn about the threat posed by climate change, humanity’s biggest challenge today.
Backtrack along the money trail to understand why the board banned instruction from 13 chapters of state-approved textbooks. There, you’ll find evangelicals who see political activism as a form of spiritual warfare against secularists who are Satan’s unwitting accomplices.
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The Cy-Fair ringleader, Natalie Kagan Blasingame, has long rejected the separation of church and state and advocates getting Jesus in the classroom. Her backers go a step further, insisting that the Bible trumps the Constitution.
The conservative Cy-Fair trustees, who voted 6-1 last week to remove material deemed controversial by conservative activists, blamed a budget crisis. They also eliminated 600 positions, including 42 curriculum coaches, dozens of librarians and 278 teaching positions, to make up a $138 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year.
None of the conservatives explained how their ally, Gov. Greg Abbott, created the shortfall by refusing to increase school funding until the Legislature approved sending public money to private, predominantly Christian schools. Instead, they seized an opportunity to ban ideas they don’t like, following up on a 2022 ban on books addressing racial discrimination and LGBTQ topics.
The trustees are making good on campaign promises, not reacting to a crisis.
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Conservatives began their takeover of the Cy-Fair board in 2021 with the election of three Christian fundamentalists. Blasingame, who has long argued the Constitution does not require the separation of church and public schools, was backed by Recover America, a group dedicated to electing Christians to school boards and led by Rick Scarborough, a prominent Christian nationalist.
Christian conservatives celebrated again this past November when their candidates won three more seats. Those candidates were financially backed by Texans for Educational Freedom and Cy-Fair for Liberty Political Action Committee, which calls “for public schools to end all teaching of immoral and anti-American values.”
The political activists behind these PACs are part of a coalition of Christian nationalist groups called the Remnant Alliance. The Texas Observer, a nonprofit news site, recently investigated the financial and political ties between a dozen alliance members and hundreds of member churches.
The alliance’s vision is “to see the body of Christ awaken across our republic, exercise their leadership role to influence others for God, and in turn, restore the Judeo-Christian foundations that brought America’s great blessings and welfare,” the group’s website says.
A key strategy for obscuring connections between local candidates and state and national activists is to create a separate PAC for each school district, such as Cy-Fair for Liberty. Dozens of these groups have backed 105 candidates in 35 districts who believe Christians should hold every leadership position and prioritize a biblical world view, the Observer’s Steve Monacelli reported.
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National groups play a critical role in developing strategy and ideology, though, including Turning Point USA. Founder Charlie Kirk has smeared Martin Luther King, made racist comments, demeaned immigrants, pushed ridiculous conspiracy theories and has become a key ally of former President Donald Trump.
A consistent conservative campaign theme is old-fashioned gay bashing. They start by banning drag performers from reading books to children, then clear library shelves of LGBTQ materials. They make baseless accusations that defenders of LGBTQ rights are perverts and pedophiles.
Hard-right groups have successfully mobilized their voters in low-turnout elections, particularly those held in May or odd-numbered years. This is how democracy is supposed to work. If you win a majority of votes, no matter how few, you get to implement your plan.
Christian nationalists have also lost elections. This month, voters in North East ISD near San Antonio rejected all five conservative candidates. Voters even ousted a well-known incumbent, thanks to the district employee’s union and a PAC called Bexar County Champions for Public Education.
The culture war between conservatives demanding conformity to their world view and secularists espousing individual liberty to live freely will define the 2024 elections. Voters must not forget, though, that culture has economic consequences too.
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Our economy thrives on immigration, innovation, diversity and free thinking; turning Texas into Margaret Atwood’s Republic of Gilead will only squelch what makes our society thrive.
Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at houstonhchronicle.com/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter.
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