In 2019, the Keller Independent School District in North Texas bore similarities to its neighboring district in Richardson, located approximately 30 miles east in the Dallas area. Each district served about 35,000 children and had seen significant increases in student racial diversity over recent decades. Both were governed by predominantly white school boards.
Over the past five years, however, these districts have taken markedly different paths amidst statewide cultural conflicts regarding the teaching of race and gender. In Keller, groups aiming to restrict the teaching of race and gender supported candidates who gained control of the school board and enacted policies empowering individuals to halt the purchase of books deemed unsuitable for children.
Despite more than half of its students coming from racially diverse backgrounds, in 2023, Keller’s board canceled plans to buy a biography of Black poet Amanda Gorman after a teacher from a private religious school, who had no children in the district, objected to a passage that highlighted the importance of diverse authors in Gorman’s literary journey.
Conversely, the Richardson school board, facing similar pressures from groups opposed to certain educational materials, chose not to ban library books. Instead, they allowed parents to limit their own children’s access to specific books, maintaining availability for other students.
A key factor in these differing approaches was the makeup of their school boards. How school board members are elected significantly influences whether districts like Keller and Richardson are susceptible to takeovers by ideologically driven conservative groups, an investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed. Leveraging the state’s longstanding at-large electoral system, which allows voters to choose all board members, these groups have successfully turned school boards to their advantage.
In Texas, most school districts employ the at-large voting system. Advocates claim it offers broader representation, yet voting rights proponents argue it diminishes the influence of voters of color. Research indicates that districts electing board members by smaller geographic zones see greater success among candidates of color.
The Richardson district shifted to a single-member system in 2019 after a lawsuit, permitting candidates to be elected by voters within specific geographic boundaries. This change resulted in a more diverse board and policy decisions that contrasted sharply with Keller’s.
ProPublica and The Texas Tribune’s review of suburban districts, where a majority of the student population is now racially diverse, found that those using at-large voting systems saw culture-war movements effectively elect board members who pursued aggressive removals of educational materials. In contrast, districts using single-member voting experienced less impact from such movements.
Approximately 150 Texas districts have converted to single-member systems since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which aims to prevent voter discrimination and has improved racial representation in local governments. Richardson’s transition followed a lawsuit by a former Black board member and exemplifies this shift.
However, legal challenges to at-large systems may become more difficult due to federal policy changes during Donald Trump’s presidency. He froze civil rights litigation against school districts accused of minority discrimination, suggesting that his administration would avoid challenging at-large systems.
The political climate in Texas remains challenging for districts opposing curriculum restrictions and book bans related to race and racism. Efforts by state legislators to widen bans on diversity and inclusion programs put pressure on districts to conform.
In Keller, the board’s president, Charles Randklev, did not respond to requests for comment, though it is noted that the board claims to represent all students. Parent Laney Hawes criticized the board’s library purchase policy, saying it created a channel for banning books about race, thereby limiting her children’s educational exposure to diverse perspectives.
Adjacent districts like Richardson, however, benefitted from the move to single-member districts, maintaining diverse representation and resisting involvement in cultural conflicts. This approach allowed their board to focus on substantive educational issues rather than being drawn into divisive debates.
With inspiration from Richardson’s experience, Keller parents began exploring options to push for a more representative voting system, driven by concerns over both racial and geographic representation.
Recently, after proposing a split of the district into more racially and economically segregated sections, the Keller board retracted the plan due to financial implications. This decision has further motivated parents to campaign for eliminating the at-large system, drawing hope from successful challenges in other districts like Richardson.
