Conflict of Values Rains on a Christmas Parade

COMMENTARY Civil Society

Conflict of Values Rains on a Christmas Parade

Jan 17, 2023 1 min read

Commentary By

Jay P. Greene, PhD @jaypgreene

Senior Research Fellow, Center for Education Policy

Ian S. Kingsbury, PhD

Senior Fellow, Educational Freedom Institute

Drag queens Felicia Enspire, Alexandria Van Cartier and Sedonya Face sit on a float at a Christmas parade on Saturday, Dec 3 in Taylor, TX. Sergio Flores / The Washington Post /a Getty Images

Key Takeaways

Educators in rural schools increasingly view their role as rescuing children from the backward ideas of their parents.

Rural educators in Texas appear to have a very different worldview than do their neighbors, whose children they teach.

Offering education savings accounts would give families dollars they pay in taxes so that they can be used at schools that promote the values they teach at home.

Kevin Stuart’s “A Small Texas City Gets a Drag-Queen Parade for Christmas” (Cross Country, Dec. 10) describes the “yawning ideological gap between the people who live in American towns and the professionalized cadre of city staff.” One finds a similar disconnect in values between the parents and public-school employees in those towns. Educators in rural schools may have once reflected the values of the communities they served, but they increasingly view their role as rescuing children from the backward ideas of their parents.

We analyzed the political campaign contributions of public-school employees who reside in rural ZIP Codes in Texas. Of the more than 1,400 contributions these educators made during the past two years, 90% went to support Democrats. By comparison, the Republican governor won re-election with over 80% of the two-party vote in rural counties. Rural educators in Texas appear to have a very different worldview than do their neighbors, whose children they teach.

Offering education savings accounts would give families control over the dollars they pay in taxes so that they can be used at schools that promote, rather than undermine, the values they teach at home.

This letter originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on December 15, 2022.