Bay Area Houston

In an article with the Houston Chronicle, candidate for CCISD Trustee, Peter Lauson claims to want to take politics out of the school board. Unfortunately we have him on video and now in ink saying the exact opposite.

Lauzon is a former member of the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC). He helped draft and voted to approve the Republican platform. The platform is what his party, and he, believes in. It outlines their goals and intentions and it is NOT in the best interest of the parents, teachers, and students of CCISD. If elected this is what you can expect from him as a Trustee. Here are just some of the high[low]lights of his platform. The entire platform can be read here.

155. Homosexuality: Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice. (How are teachers, parents, students, staff, who are gay or who have loved ones who are gay and attend CCISD suppose to interpret this statement coming from a candidate for Trustee?)

31. Prayer, Bible, and Ten Commandments in Schools: We support prayer, the Bible, and the Ten Commandments being returned to our schools, courthouses, and other government buildings. (What kind of prayer? Islam? Buddhist? or just the word of Jesus Christ their savior?)

101. School Choice: Texas families shall be empowered to choose from public, private, charter, or homeschool options for their children’s education, and the funding shall follow the student without strings attached. (ie Vouchers)

103. Parents’ Rights in Education: Parents are the primary educators and disciplinarians of their children, to which all other entities are inferior. (As if parents know better than teachers in education matters)

106. Inappropriate and/or Harmful Content: We request that the Texas Legislature pass legislation that requires Texas schools and libraries to filter inappropriate and/or harmful content, such as pornography, for minors. (This is already done but they want to ban anything that references the gay community. See 155 above)

108. Religious Freedom and Public Schools: We urge school administrators and officials not to infringe on Texas school students’ and staffs’ rights to pray and engage in religious speech, individually or in groups, on school property without government interference. (That is already done.)

112. American Identity: We favor strengthening our common American identity, which includes the contribution and assimilation of diverse racial and ethnic groups. We reject Critical Race Theory as a post-Marxist ideology that seeks to undermine the system of law and order itself and to reduce individuals to their group identity alone. We support legislation to remove this ideology from government programs, including education involving race, discrimination, and racial awareness. 

115. Bilingual Education: We encourage non-English-speaking students to transition, via best practices, to English within two years, allowing them to quickly assimilate and succeed in American society. (As opposed to learning multiple languages to compete in a global environment)

123. Withdraw from Taxpayer-Funded Lobby Groups Like TASB: Local independent school districts should sever all ties with taxpayer funded lobby groups including the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), and the Texas Association of Community Schools (TACS). 

This is who Peter Lauzon is. This is what he voted for. This is what he believes in. The only way he should come close to a school is if he bought a ticket to a school carnival.

Wow. Two Caught on Camera posts in one week!

There was a hearing for Senate Bill 175 which would gut the ability of the Texas Association of School Boards to advocate on behalf of the 1025 school boards that are members. According to their website:

The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) is a voluntary, nonprofit, statewide educational association that serves and represents local Texas school boards and was established in 1949 with two main goals in mind:

To share information through publications and training to help Texas board members serve their communities more effectively.

To speak with a unified voice to decision makers to chart the best future for Texas public schools.

Trustee Scott Bowen, identifying himself as a Trustee of CCISD and speaking as a Trustee, on behalf of less than 50% of those who voted for him, spent his “own time and own dime” to speak in support of cutting TASB advocacy and giving the State more control over a local school district.

TASB has 1025 districts as members out of 1250 districts in the entire state. They were created in 1949 and have sustained their membership for over 30 years. They do the job that Trustees, working parents, teachers, and students can’t do. They advocate for public education, informing and advising elected officials on the impacts of legislation.

If you have ever been a citizen lobbyist (I have) you know how much time it takes from work and your family to speak with staff and elected officials and to speak at hearings. Unlike the high paid lobbyists working for the homebuilders in Texas, I could only spend a week or two in Austin to advocate for consumers. The little guys (you and your family) are out gunned especially when it comes to the cost of home insurance, electricity, new homes, and other consumer issues.

And students, parents, and teachers are also out gunned especially when the State and Scott Bowen is hell bent on dismantling public education. You can watch Bowen’s 3 minutes of fame here.

This is just plain dishonest.

Peter Lauzon is running for CCISD Trustee. He is a political hack, deeply involved with the Republican Party, recruited by Trustee Scott Bowen, another political hack, will probably be funded by the party and should never be anywhere near a public school. I have said this before about Lauzon:

So here comes yet another election denier, one that will whine if they lose instead of graciously accepting the loss and move on. Lauzon has strong ties to Scott Bowen, the Corporal Chaos of CCISD and the Republican Party. He was a member of the Texas Republican Executive Committee. His wife is the Vice President of the Bay Area Republican Women’s Club. Lauzon, as a Committee member, motioned for the Texas Republican Party to endorse Bowen and they did. He most probably will have tens of thousands of dollars to spend from his party just as Scott Bowen did in latest reelection.

So it just bothers the living snot out of me when Lauzon, in his interview with the Houston Chronicle, says “Lauzon said as a trustee he would ensure that politics stays out of the board’s decision-making process and work to create an environment of accountability to students and parents.”

What an incredibly dishonest statement. Just like his predecessors, Misty Dawson and Christine Parizo, Lauzon is claiming he wants to keep politics out of the CCISD board yet he is the only person running that will bring extreme right wing politics into the board along side of Scott Bowen. This is dishonesty at it’s worse.

To compound this, Lauzon claims that CCISD needs to prepare kids for careers outside of attending college. Someone ought to tell Lauzon that CCISD has one of the BEST programs in the State that does exactly that. Maybe he should get a tour of the CTE (not CRT) program at CCISD before opening his pie hole. The Career and Technical Education program provides students with the opportunity to prepare for college as well as a career in many different fields such as IT, Constructions, Audio/Visual, Culinary, manufacturing and more. It is a very impressive program.

The fact that Lauzon doesn’t even know of this program is yet another hint that he has no business being on the school board. His stated goals is straight out of the republican talking points “I want to give parents a voice in the decisions that will impact their child’s education because I know what it’s like to have to fight for the educational needs of my own child,”. Parents have a voice. They have always had a voice. What Lauzon is referring to is a voice of the extreme far right that wants to ban books, ban the gay community, and ban anything that doesn’t adhere to his party of perverted “family values”.

Make no mistake about this. Lauzon will bring his perverted values and extreme right wing politics into the board. CCISD doesn’t need partisan politics from any political party.