(AUSTIN, Texas) –School funding, gun violence and the impact of private school vouchers are just a few of the issues on the minds of Texas public school teachers this fall.

The Click sat down with Texas State Teachers Association Public Affairs Specialist Clay Robison to discuss how the labor union works to provide quality public schools for students, and how November election results could help or hinder that goal. 

What is your role within the TSTA?

I’m the spokesperson. I’ve been with the TSTA since 2010. The man who hired me [Richard Cory] asked me to do the blog because I used to do a newspaper column about politics and education. I also write a weekly report for our members on what’s going on with education.

Sometimes I’ll write an op-ed. We endorse Colin Allred, for example and I wrote an op-ed about that.

We’re here because we get dues from our members. We represent teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, support workers, teachers’ aides…

We can advocate for them before the legislature and school boards for higher pay for their classrooms, and better working conditions. We also can support candidates in political races; we cannot use our normal dues money to pay for that. 

The director of this center works with the PAC committee to advise them on which candidates we should endorse. We do campaign mailers and make political contributions sometimes.

What are the biggest issues at stake in the upcoming election season that could impact public schools?

Funding for public schools and the fight against vouchers for private schools. 

[Texas Governor Greg Abbott] is a part of a bigger push out there to privatize education and … eventually do away with public schools. The focus should be on providing more tax dollars for public schools, teachers and support staff, not for private schools.

What do you think people are misunderstanding about the impact of these issues?

The school privatization push has a lot of wealthy supporters who are donating lots of money to political candidates, including the governor…and they’re spreading the untruth that public schools are failing. They’re underfunded…since teachers are underpaid, there’s a lot of turnover among teachers. 

Have you read about the new state curriculum that uses a lot of biblical references? If the state board of education adopts the curriculum, it’ll be available for districts to use next year. A lot of districts may not want to use it, but they’ll be tempted because they’ll get extra state money.

If Trump is elected, he’ll basically, I think, try to abolish the [federal] Department of Education. If he doesn’t get it abolished, he’ll appoint somebody who’s … basically anti-public education. 

In the case of [Sen. Ted] Cruz and Allred, Cruz is kind of a Trump junior … his main interest in education is how to privatize it. He’s filed several times a proposed federal voucher called tax credit scholarships … it’s the same thing as a voucher, just more of an indirect route. 

Each year it gets tougher for [teachers] if they don’t get a raise [and] nothing is done about gun violence— we believe that the best way to start dealing with gun violence is to reduce the number of guns.

The shooter in Uvalde used an AR-15…federal and state law says an 18-year-old can buy an assault rifle. What business does an 18-year-old … have with an assault rifle?

There was a bill before the legislature last session. It raised the age for purchasing an assault rifle from 18 to 21. The legislature refused to pass it.

At some point, some [teachers] are going to lose their patience, and they’re going to leave and be replaced by less experienced teachers that may not be certified. The way to fight them is for political change. 

But it’s for the students, that’s what it all boils down to. They are the future.