‘We can’t sit back and idly let education run adrift’: Blair Schroeder seeks election to AISD School Board

BIG COUNTRY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) — In this week’s Big Country Politics, Blair Schroeder, a candidate for Place 3 on the Abilene Independent School District school board, shared his plans for the future if he is elected. He also discussed his observations as a parent of AISD students and spouse of a teacher.

Born and raised in Abilene, Schroeder graduated from Abilene High School. After spending time outside the state, he returned to raise a family in the Key City.

“This is home to me. Even though I graduated from high school, I went on to college in Nashville and then went on and spent some time in Cincinnati, where my wife is from, but we knew that Abilene was home,” Schroeder said. “They make people a little different out here in West Texas, and we wanted that environment for our family. The value system that we hold dear is something that we find charming, and we find it something that we want to pass along to the generation that we’re raising at home.”

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Schroeder is the Chief Strategy Officer at Abilene Christian University and has previously worked in politics and government affairs.

“When I was in Cincinnati, I was involved in politics to some extent, and government public affairs and relationships there. When I moved back to Abilene, one of the relationships that I wanted to pick up was with Congressman Arrington. Recognizing a mutual history and love for all things food, fuel, and fiber in West Texas, we connected, and I was fortunate enough to be his district director and then also help run some of his political work,” Schroeder shared. “Through that, it was a great chance to reconnect with my hometown, right? There are so many people; the stories in West Texas are vast and great, the people, the faith, the heritage, and so all those values aligned with with mine, and so I was excited to be a part of his team. Even now, while I’m at ACU as the Chief Strategy Officer, Jodey is somebody who is a dear friend of mine, and I know that I can reach out to him any time, and we still talk a fair amount.”

Education can be a challenging profession, and fewer people are entering the field nowadays. However, Schroeder holds this close to his heart.

“If we look back at one of the lessons learned from 2020, it is that every elected office matters. We can’t afford to forfeit any single seat because every office has an opportunity to impact our communities in a way that, I think, up to that point, we had kind of taken for granted. For me, the school board is something that’s near and dear to my heart. Not only am I a product of Abilene school, but when we moved back to Texas, and we moved back to Abilene, I said I wanted to move specifically; I told her real estate agent to put me in AISD. That’s where I want to raise my kids,” Schroeder shared.

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He mentioned he could offer a unique perspective as a father of four AISD students and husband to an educator.

“So I have four kids. Currently, if you look at the makeup of the school board, I appreciate and respect all of them. But none of them currently have any students in their homes who are students at AISD. For me, I have four: a junior in high school, a freshman in high school, a sixth grader in middle school, and then a fourth grader in elementary school. So these are kitchen table issues for me,” Schroeder said. “I’ll even take it a step further… When we moved back here, my wife started as a teacher’s aide. She found an opportunity and felt like this was a calling for her. She’s now gone through the certification process, and she’s a special education teacher. So these aren’t just, I’m not hearing about it just as a parent, but I’m also hearing about it as a spouse of a teacher. These are issues that I think are near and dear. Admittedly, as I look at AISD, I think there’s a lot of tremendous opportunity. But I think there are also opportunities for us to make some vast improvements in some areas that I think are important to parents. That’s part of the voice that I hope to lend to the conversation.”

He expressed his aim to improve the district, which includes teacher morale, boosting test scores, and rallying behind education.

“Part of my role at ACU is that we’re always trying to attract talent to Abilene, and some of the work that I’ve done in the past was economic development and education. Schools matter. It’s not just a slogan that matters to people who have kids in the school district, but it isn’t a local economic issue,” Schroeder said. “This is a district that bears our name, and yes, there are some good school districts around us; we have some that are actually even advertising within Abilene to try to pull off some of our students. So we have to do a better job telling our story. But at the same time, I think it’s incredibly important for us as a community to rally behind our education team and not just simply let it drift. We have to do a better job of boosting teacher morale, improving test scores for our students, and leaning into the things that matter. I think we should make sure that our school system doesn’t go the way of the culture wars, as so many people have tried to lean in and leverage classrooms for that type of education. That’s not what we’re about here in West Texas.”

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Recently, AISD’s academic performance has been low. However, officials have been striving to address this issue. To further this cause, Schroeder has reiterated his desire to ‘do a better job of telling the AISD story.’ He aims to enhance academic standards and ensure that they are fair to all.

“One of the things that we have to immediately do to help restore confidence is we have to do a better job of telling our story; we are more than just a test rating of a C that does not define us. It does not define the work that the teachers do, [it] does not define the work of our students. There was a former president who used to have the expression ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations.’ That’s something that we, as a West Texas community, don’t need to fall subject to; I think it’s okay for us to aspire to want more and to try to achieve more, but we can’t look for our friends in Austin to try to salvage us,” Schroeder said. “I think part of what a school board member should do is to be able to lean into that and provide support and encouragement where we can help support. In this case, we’re going to have a new superintendent coming into the next calendar year. I think it’s important that we help acclimate them to help make sure that we do all the things necessary to improve teacher morale and, at the same point in time, lean into rigorous academic standards to meet the needs of our students and have testing that actually is fair and equitable with respect to measuring the whole child in terms of the experiences that they have.”

Abilene ISD is one of 22 districts in Texas that participate in the System of Great Schools program. This program aims to understand performance issues and help improve the district from the outside.

“I applaud the effort to lean into that. Simply put, whenever you recognize that there’s a problem, that’s not enough just to recognize that. You have to have a strategy to work toward a successful outcome. So, I do think that this is a step in the right direction. One of the things that I know from the program is looking at how we are leaning into some of the STEM courses, right? There are a lot of different things that are redefining what education is, but there’s beauty in the basics if you will. And that’s one of the fundamental building blocks that I think we have to have with a project like this. So it’s the North Star program as well. I think that this is a strong first step. But again, there’s going to be other steps that need to happen,” Schroeder said.

School vouchers have become a political talking point in Texas. Schroeder shared that he’s watched this conversation across the U.S. for years and has seen both positives and negatives.

“I’ve seen it work really well. But I also know that in some instances, it’s not a zero-sum game, and it can hurt communities that are more rural or have unique needs with respect to some of the student population. I think we need to be paying close attention to what’s happening in Austin. That’s one of the things, as a member of the school board, I hope to be a part of making sure that we don’t just take what Austin gives us while we have to obviously abide by their policies and the politics that come out of it. But we need to also leverage our influence and be able to leverage relationships in a meaningful way to help drive an outcome. That’s good for Abilene,” Schroeder said. “It’s not enough just to have an opinion, but we also have to know how to navigate within whatever Austin sends us. So, from a voucher program, if you will, I would suggest that there’s going to be a financial implication regardless of whatever the governor gets through the legislature. We have to know how to prioritize, we have to know how to steward our funds. We have to make sure that we have a good understanding of what our income is, to where we can make sure we prioritize and invest accordingly.”

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Schroeder is running unopposed for AISD School Board place three. This is his message to the Abilene community:

“I’m one of you. I was raised in Abilene. I’m a proud product of Abilene ISD. I’m a parent, and that’s a voice that has been missing on the school board for quite some time. I’m eager to be able to represent everyone who has a stake in the education process for our kids. We can’t sit back and idly let education run adrift; we have to lean into the things that matter. I would submit to you that nothing matters more than education because it is the bedrock for our community in terms of how we posture our kids for success. It helps develop our workforce, it helps that it’s our priority and our agenda. Our students deserve the best, and teachers deserve the best. That’s what I intend to give them.”

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