English
Korean
Spanish
PFLUGERVILLE—Domestic partners of Pflugerville Independent School District employees can benefit from a controversial insurance plan adopted by the administration and approved by the board of trustees in a 5-1 vote last month. The policy is the only one of its kind in the state and, some contend, puts PISD in conflict with the Texas Constitution, setting it up for future legal battles.
PISD Superintendent Charles Dupre adopted the policy in August based on committee recommendations following an annual review of employee insurance plans. The program allows employees to claim domestic partners—homosexual or heterosexual—as dependents on their insurance. But public opposition voiced during the October school board meeting prompted trustee Jimmy Don Havin to call a public hearing on the matter and consider rescinding the policy. More than 200 people filled the Pflugerville High School cafeteria to address the issue. A majority lauded the plan and decried its opponents as hatemongers.
“As a pastor I was overwhelmed with the lostness of our community and the total lack of understanding of the issues,” said Steve Washburn, pastor of the 2,000-member Pflugerville First Baptist Church for 22 years. The community lies amid suburban sprawl about 14 miles north of downtown Austin. Since 1990, the town’s population has grown tenfold, from just over 4,000 people to 46,936, according to 2010 U.S Census estimates.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, “raw emotion, not logic” underscored remarks, Washburn said. Efforts to caricature opponents of the plan as “hatemongers” left the pastor defensive and discouraged. Instead of reading from a prepared statement, Washburn pocketed his notes and spoke directly to his detractors.
“I do not hate,” he told the crowd. “That is not my reputation.”
But his vocal opposition to the policy in recent weeks seemed to put him in conflict with the “hate-free policy” of Pflugerville High School where he made his address, Washburn surmised. Students attending the meeting held on their campus donned pink t-shirts emblazoned with “Stop the Hate.”
Other clergy, including a lesbian pastor of an Austin congregation, called the policy the “right,” “loving,” and the “fair” thing to do. Another pastor took Washburn to task for feeling “bullied,” claiming those deprived of insurance coverage as the real victims.
While accusing the policy opponents of “hatred” and “intolerance,” proponents offered little substantive rationale for keeping the policy, said Jonathan Saenz of Texas Values, the Austin public policy arm of Plano-based Liberty Institute.
Some championed the new policy as a magnet for new highly qualified teachers. But Saenz called such rhetoric “absurd” because is no evidence to prove such a statement, he said.
Five of the district’s 2,500 employees enrolled in the plan, which goes into effect Jan. 1.
Saenz, an attorney and president of Texas Values, said the district’s actions could land it in court. The policy conflicts with the Texas Marriage Amendment passed in 2005 by 76 percent of voters, he said. Texas Values filed a brief with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office seeking an opinion on the PISD policy and that of a handful of other Texas municipalities and counties with similar insurance plans. To date, those policies have gone unchallenged in court. Saenz wants to force a legal opinion before other governmental entities follow PISD’s lead.
Texas Values is a public policy organization defending Judeo-Christian values in the areas of religious liberty, family, and pro-life issues.
If Abbott rules against PISD, Saenz said the district would have two options: drop the policy or wage an expensive legal battle. With school districts across the state short on revenue, Saenz said the latter would not be in the district’s best interest.
In the board’s closing arguments before the vote, Saenz said it was clear they did not like having to defend the actions of the superintendent. But their favorable vote—5-1 with one abstention—made the board culpable for any future legal action against the district.
Washburn said representatives from two teacher’s associations told the board the majority of the district’s employees favor the plan. But he said they produced no documentation backing their claims. Teachers from the 2,000-member Pflugerville First Baptist Church opposed the plan but did not want to be seen as “going against their boss” by speaking out, Washburn said.
-30-
