opinion

Texas AG at war with public education and voting

It's official: The Texas Attorney General's Office and, therefore, by extension, our state government, opposes public education and voting.

How else to interpret the intimidation tactics that Attorney General Ken Paxton has deployed against public-school administrators who, without naming candidates' names, urge educators to support office-seekers who are pro-public education? And how else to interpret his efforts to discourage them from transporting teachers and voting-age students to polling places?

Paxton has been sending cease-and-desist letters warning administrators to stop "illegal electioneering," according to a report by Emma Platoff of the Texas Tribune. He also has been papering administrators with public information requests for communications by their school districts regarding the primary elections, voting, and specific candidates.

It would be one thing if a school superintendent were telling teachers and 18-year-old students to vote for So-And-So who's running for such-and-such elected position. But that's not what has been happening. They're urging them to vote and, when they do, to choose candidates who care about public education.

It's not the administrators' fault that some candidates favor anti-public education policies such as siphoning public funding to private schools run by religious denominations, in the form of tax credits commonly called vouchers. They shouldn't be blamed just because that description fits Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is running for re-election, and a lot of other far-right Republicans, including Paxton and his wife, Angela, who's running for his former Texas Senate seat.

"Pro-public education" is a generic description for what public-school administrators, teachers, students, their parents and, frankly, all Texans should be. If a candidate doesn't live up to the description, it's the candidate's fault.

It's not a legitimate reason to apply the Texas Election and Education codes against good-faith efforts to encourage civic engagement and promote education. Educators are supposed to do that. And judging by Texas' dismal voter turnout trends, they need to do a much better job of it.

They could use the attorney general's help in this worthy endeavor. And Paxton should give it.

Instead he's doing the opposite, practicing what amounts to voter suppression, which is nothing new for him. Paxton continues to defend vigorously the state's oppressive voter ID law, which has been declared unconstitutional because it makes voting difficult for low-income voters, especially those who are members of historically discriminated-against racial and ethnic minorities. The moral and practical thing for him to do would be to declare the state's case a lost cause, save a bunch of tax money and go home.

Now, in addition to attacking low-income minorities for wanting to exercise their right to vote, he's going after teachers, principals, superintendents and teenagers. And he's using the authority of his office and state resources to do it. This is sinister and needs to stop.

More: Latest version of Texas voter ID law takes effect Jan. 1