For years, Republicans have complained that school boards and public schools have been captured by progressive ideology. That’s certainly the case in many parts of the country. But in my town of Midland, Texas, MAGA is taking its revenge.
Last week, the Midland ISD Board of Trustees voted 4 to 3 to revert a 2020 decision that renamed Robert E. Lee High School to Legacy High. (I live in Midland and wrote about the controversial decision when it happened for Texas Monthly.) After Tuesday evening’s contentious meeting, which went on for almost four hours, Midland Lee is back, making Midland the first city in Texas to rename a school for a Confederate general.
Midland is a staunchly conservative town that voted nearly 80 percent for Trump in the last election, so you won’t be surprised that the move was celebrated by some citizens who viewed the 2020 board decision to rename the school as an erasure of history by a spineless school board infected with the progressive cultural fever that raged that summer. Comments on the Facebook pages of local media outlets range from delighted—“Congratulations! Another strike against race baiting ‘wokeism!’ ”—to disturbed, with some celebrating the decision with overtly racist memes and calls to bring back the “stars and bars,” a reference to the Confederate flag that hasn’t flown above a football game at the high school since 1991.
But outside the comments section, there’s little evidence that this decision enjoys broad community support.
In fact, many here in Midland feel embarrassed by the board’s actions. And there’s growing concern that a group of four Midland ISD Trustees—Joshua Guinn, Dr. Matthew Friez, Angel Hernandez, and board president Brandon Hodges—have formed a voting bloc to override the other three board members and ignore constituents at meetings.
