Even in nonpartisan elections, we like to know who the Democrat is. If we know an elected official is a Democrat, then we feel they can be trusted. Unfortunately, when it comes to more niche issues in public education, things don’t fall neatly along party lines. There is danger in people simply assuming that a school board with a supermajority of members who vote Democratic must be making the right decisions for our kids, teachers, and other education workers.

On the headline-grabbing issues, sure, Democrats are pretty aligned: against vouchers, against book bans, in favor of DEI, and in favor of increased funding. However, there are a few public education-related issues that Dems need to grill our candidates about, even if those candidates are also Dems. For now, I’m just addressing one: Test-based pay-for-performance structures.

This could be a much longer article all by itself, but essentially, teachers in Dallas ISD are victims of a scheme orchestrated by Abbott-appointed TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, back when he was a member of the Dallas ISD school board, and Morath-appointed Houston Not-so-I SD Takeover Superintendent Mike Miles, back when he was superintendent of Dallas ISD. This pay scheme is called TEI – Teacher Excellence Initiative – and it makes teacher pay dependent on standardized test scores, subjective evaluations from administrators based on a vague and generic rubric, and surveys given to students asking them poorly worded questions on how they feel about their teacher. These pay-for-performance systems are condemned in the current Texas Democratic Party platform.

“But,” you cry, “this was created by Republicans! Surely this is a partisan issue!” Sadly, no. The Dallas ISD school board is composed of eight members with strong Democratic voting histories and one member with a mixed voting history. But of these nine members, only one, Joyce Foreman, is opposed to this absurd system. Even some Democrats in the state legislature buy into it. With their support, and full Republican support, Morath is pushing for these kinds of pay systems all over the state, including in the growing number of districts he is taking over.

To be sure you’re supporting truly pro-public-education, pro-teacher, pro-student candidates, follow the education worker unions on social media. In Dallas ISD, that’s Alliance AFT. For the whole state, it’s Texas AFT.