Wall Street Journal

Opinion: A Campaign Against School Choice Prompts Criminal Charges

April 12, 2024

(Wall Street Journal)—Texas Republican voters sent a clear Super Tuesday message to opponents of education freedom within their party. Ten incumbents who are against school choice were either defeated or forced into runoffs in their primary elections. The results are a clear example of ballot-box accountability for career politicians who put the demands of special interests over the needs of families.

School choice won even as its enemies used taxpayer resources to fight it. This scandal was first exposed by a whistleblower at the Denton County Independent School District who leaked school administrators’ internal emails directing staff how to vote in the Republican primary. The order? Take down candidates who support school choice. Staff were even told that Texas schoolteachers wouldn’t receive raises if the wrong candidates won (an ironic claim, given that the failed 2023 school-choice bill included a $4,000 bonus for public-school teachers). Such electioneering by school districts and administrators is a crime in Texas—a Class A misdemeanor punishable by fines up to $4,000 and up to a year in jail…

Read the full op-ed by Dean McGee and Corey DeAngelis here on the Wall Street Journal’s website.