One month ago, Schoolgrader asked a Houston-area school board member if his self-professed teaching of “Critical Pedagogy and Multicultural Education” was a form of teaching critical race theory.
The school board member, Paul Shanklin of the Aldine School District in the northern Houston area, did not reply. But that information has since vanished from his short biography on the district's web site.
Shanklin, who is president of the Aldine school board, previously bragged in his bio that, “He is also an adjunct professor at the Univeristy of Houston-Downton, where he teaches Critical Pedagogy and Multicultural Education.”
Schoolgrader asked Shanklin if those subjects are a form of critical race theory because his fellow board member, Viola Garcia, was one of the two people who signed the notorious September 29 letter urging President Joseph R. Biden to use domestic terrorism and hate crime laws against parents who are deemed too rowdy at school board meetings.
Garcia co-signed the letter through her position as president of the Alexandra, Virginia-based National School Boards Association, a lobbying group for a number of lobbying groups that represent school boards in their respective states. The letter was co-signed by Garcia and NSBA chief executive Chip Slaven.
Since Garcia and Slaven claimed that “critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class,” Schoolgrader wanted to check if Garcia's colleague agreed with that, despite his teaching of critical pedagogy and multicultural education to prospective teachers.
Shanklin, a lawyer who works in government affairs for Harris County Precint 4, again did not reply for this story. Aldine ISD spkeswoman Sylvia Samuell-Baston told Schoolgrader today that the bios of school board members “are frequently and continuously updated to provide an accurate overview of experience and accomplishments.”
She added that the information was removed because “Paul Shanklin no longer serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston-Downtown.” If that is the case, she did not explain why the updated bio says that Shanklin “was an adjunct professor at the Houston Community College Southeast Campus, where he taught American and Texas Government,” after the previous bio said he “is” an adjunct professor at that campus.
Shanklin and all the other Aldine school board members have declined to reply to Schoograder inquiries as to whether they are considering sanctioning Garcia, who has a middle school in district named in her honor, for her outrageous letter that has roiled the country. So far, the educational establishment has seemingly rewarded Garcia for her efforts. Schoolgraer on October 18 broke a national story that she was named to a prestigious federal education post by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona soon after the letter was sent.