NPE Action endorses Leilani Barnett for Texas House of Representatives, District 69
NPE Action is proud to endorse Leilani Barnett for the Texas House, District 69. She has signed our pledge affirming an unequivocal commitment to public education — and she brings to it something rare in this race: a lifetime spent in Texas public schools.
Barnett is a retired Texas educator with 32 years of experience — in the classroom, on campuses, and in central-office leadership. She has served as national chairwoman of NCTE’s Assembly for National Board Certified Teachers and as president of her state NCTE affiliate, sat on the executive board of the National Writing Project at Alabama A&M University, and been named a district Teacher of the Year, among numerous other honors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism, master’s degrees in literature and in educational leadership, and is completing a Ph.D. in education, with dissertation research on how standardized curricula shape teacher job satisfaction. This is a candidate who has done the work and studied the system she seeks to serve.
Her platform reflects it. Barnett would fund Texas public schools at or above the national average and raise teacher pay to be commensurate with educators’ training and experience. She would roll back the state’s excessive standardized-testing regime — which reaches well beyond federal requirements — and reclaim the testing process from the for-profit, publicly traded company that now administers it, on the principle that no legislator should hold a financial stake in a company contracting with the schools it oversees. These commitments track directly with the affirmations she has signed: equitable, needs-based funding; fully prepared and fairly compensated educators; assessment that serves learning rather than punishes students, teachers, and communities; and public schools governed by and open to all.
The stakes in District 69 are high. Barnett’s opponent, thirteen-year incumbent James Frank, has been among the House’s most committed voucher proponents — authoring his own education-savings-account voucher legislation and backing Governor Abbott’s drive to divert public dollars to private and home schooling. That drive has been bankrolled by out-of-state money, most prominently from Pennsylvania billionaire and public-school critic Jeff Yass, who has poured millions into reshaping the Texas Legislature around vouchers. Frank, a homeschooling father of six, also authored the law requiring public schools to open their UIL teams to home-schooled students — even though Texas funds those schools based on daily attendance. In a district made up largely of rural counties, where a public school can be pushed toward closure by the loss of just a handful of families to vouchers, that record carries real consequences for the very communities Frank was elected to represent.
Barnett offers District 69 the opposite: a grassroots campaign that takes no money from big corporate, pharmaceutical, or tech interests, run by someone whose loyalty is to students, teachers, and public schools. Her goals align with the public-education champions already at the top of this year’s Texas ballot, including Gina Hinojosa, NPE Action’s endorsed candidate for Governor.
For her expertise, her integrity, and her unwavering commitment to the public schools that are a pillar of Texas democracy, NPE Action endorses Leilani Barnett for Texas House District 69 — and urges the voters of North Texas to send her to Austin.
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Authorized and paid for by Network for Public Education Action, PO Box 227. New York, NY 10156. 646-678-4477.