Mansfield school board president’s endorsement of TX House candidate draws criticism
Mansfield school board president Keziah Farrar recently appeared on a mailer endorsing David Cook for Texas House District 96. But some parents and a fellow trustee aren’t happy with it.
District policy prohibits the board as a whole from endorsing a candidate. It also states that the president acts as spokesperson for the board.
Parents and a fellow trustee who reached out to the Star-Telegram said Farrar was speaking for the board when she made her endorsement in her capacity as president, but the district and an attorney who represents school districts across the state did not agree.
Cook, a two-term Republican, is running in the Nov. 5 election to hold his seat as representative for Texas House District 96, which covers most of Mansfield, as well as Kennedale and parts of Fort Worth and Arlington. He has announced his candidacy for Texas House speaker and has the backing of a group of Republicans who want to oust Dade Phelen.
The flyer features a quote from Farrar and a photo of her with Cook on school district property.
“David Cook has fought for the funding and resources our public schools need and I trust him to continue to be a champion for our kids, teachers, parents and retirees,” reads Farrar’s statement on the flyer. “If you support public schools, vote David Cook!”
The quote is attributed to Farrar in her capacity as Mansfield school board president.
Her endorsement drew criticism from parents of students in the district.
School district officials cannot use public resources to advocate for or against a candidate for public office, according to the Texas Attorney General’s web page on school electioneering.
The Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mailer constitutes a use of public resources to endorse a political candidate, according to Clayton Waters, a father of two Mansfield students, who called it a “pretty blatant ethics and policy violation.” He argued that Farrar’s photo with Cook in front of a district administration building constituted a use of school resources to back a candidate.
Ana Horn, a mother of three students in the district, also reached out to the Star-Telegram to express her disapproval of Farrar’s endorsement of Cook.
She and Waters pointed to school board policy that prohibits the board from endorsing political candidates and states that the president acts as the spokesperson for the entire board.
“Ms. Farrar, as an elected official of the school board, is responsible for acting in the best interest of all MISD and the community she represents,” Horn said. “Using her position to endorse any candidate in a partisan election is already troubling, as her position comes with the expectation to work for everyone’s educational success regardless of political party.”
Farrar declined to comment through a district spokesperson, who said the board president “supports the district’s statement.”
Was the endorsement on behalf of the Mansfield school board?
Farrar was not speaking for the entire board in this endorsement, according to the district.
Despite the flyer stating her endorsement was made in her capacity as school board president, “Ms. Farrar was not acting on behalf of the Board of Trustees when she exercised her First Amendment right to endorse a candidate; she was acting as a private citizen,” the district said in an emailed statement.
She consulted the matter with the district’s legal counsel, who concluded that she did not violate school board policy, the district said.
Ms. Farrar “identifies herself as school board president, but she does not state that she is speaking for the school board, and her statements are not represented as a school board endorsement,” the statement reads.
Fellow trustee Jandel Crutchfield reiterated that point, saying in a post on social media on Monday, Oct. 28, that Farrar’s endorsement of Cook “does not represent the views of the Mansfield ISD school board.”
But Farrar did not draw that line clearly enough, she said. The endorsement gave the perception that she was speaking on behalf of the entire board, Crutchfield said in a phone interview.
“The board operating procedure says that she’s speaking for the board, and so I think it’s important to clarify the board did not make this decision,” Crutchfield said. “She cannot be speaking for the board in a decision to endorse someone we did not agree to endorse”
Steve Dubner, a Lewisville-based attorney who represents school districts across Texas, agreed that Farrar gave the impression that she made her endorsement of Cook on behalf of the entire board.
“It certainly could be perceived as misleading members of the public that somehow that this is an endorsement from the school district because it has her making the quote as as the board president, not just her individually,” he said. However, “Does it rise to a violation of either the education code or the election code? I don’t know that it goes that far.”
For his part, Cook found no ambiguity in Farrar’s endorsement of his candidacy.
“It’s clearly her personal opinion,” Cook said. “There’s nothing in my ad says that the MISD School Board of Trustees has endorsed my campaign.”
Crutchfield’s statement about Farrar’s endorsement was politically motivated, Cook said, referring to her support for his opponent Ebony Turner. Turner thanked Crutchfield on Facebook for hosting a fundraiser on her behalf in September.
School vouchers at issue
“Our board has NOT endorsed any candidate for the Texas House, especially not any candidate who voted to support vouchers,” Crutchfield’s statement reads. “Vouchers have been shown to divert much-needed funds away from our public schools.”
Cook is a two-term representative whose voting record on bills pertaining to school funding and vouchers has earned him a rating of “unfriendly” to public education by Texans For Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy organization that rates elected officials based on their voting records, public statements and other actions related to public schools.
The Texas Classroom Teachers Association compiled a history of Cook’s votes on recent bills related to school funding and vouchers. In the 2023 legislative session, he abstained from a vote that prohibited the use of state funds for school vouchers. He also voted against another anti-voucher bill and one that would have increased the basic per-student allotment for school funding.
“David Cook has said multiple times he fights for our public schools despite his voting record,” Waters said. “It’s reprehensible that our school board president would endorse a candidate who is working to defund the very school district that she is working to lead and represent.”
Horn also said Cook is “actively working to defund our public education school systems,” and questioned Farrar’s fitness for the position of school board president in light of her endorsement for him.
“This level of duplicity from an elected official of our school board is abhorrent,” she said. “To expect the community to assume she has our district’s best interests in mind after this is a ridiculous ask.”
The Mansfield school district issued a statement in September 2023 urging the state Legislature to reject measures to establish school vouchers and other education savings account schemes.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 4:18 PM.
