Candidates in the 2017 Cy-Fair ISD board of trustees election convened for a public forum last night, Oct. 17, to answer questions from the public. Topics ranged from property tax rates to addressing the needs of students who deal with hunger or struggle academically.

Don Ryan, a board member of 17 years, and Natalie Blasingame, an assistant superintendent in Houston ISD, are vying for Position 6. Trustee John Ogletree and Trustee Bob Covey are running unopposed for Positions 5 and 7, respectively.

Visit www.cfisd.net to see the district's voter guide as well as a video of the full discussion. Early voting starts Monday, Oct. 23, and Election Day is Nov. 7. The following responses have been lightly edited for length.

Are you in favor of promoting a Christian-based religion in Cy-Fair schools? If so, doesn’t that violate the establishment clause of the Constitution?

Blasingame: Public schools are for all students—students of every faith, students of no faith, of every creed and color. Do I believe that students have to divorce themselves of their belief system every day when they head to school? No, I don’t believe that’s true. The establishment is that there will be no favoring or hindering students’ faith. It’s not about teaching faith at school. However, right now schools are quite hostile to faith, and it’s a very nervous environment for everyone involved. With 25 years of experience [as an educator], we have no guidance because the law is so murky. This very school board got challenged this year about this concept of prayer in our meetings.

What I propose is not about bringing religion to schools, but I do believe that our educators and our boards across the nation deserve clarity to know what the rules are. We need to know how we are allowed to behave. We need to know when students bring us issues like speeches at graduation or if students want to have a conversation, how to respond so that we don’t overreact. This isn’t about promoting religion. This is about making sure that our schools are not hostile to religion and that students are able to bring their full self to school and educators know how to respond.

We’re in a mess as a culture. We basically need students to learn how to work across lines of difference. We see things dividing and not uniting. I think if children are allowed to do that in safe environments while they’re school-aged children, I think they’re going to be better off as they leave our schools at 18 and go out into the culture and learn to work with others that are different than themselves.

Ryan: This goes back to my initial comment with perception and reality. With complete respect, Dr. Blasingame has not been in our schools. I would like to set the record straight on this—Cy-Fair ISD is not hostile to faith in our schools. It never has been, it never will be. All three of my children were able to express their faith in school. God is in our schools. As long as we have tests in schools, we’ll have God in schools.

You have groups like [Fellowship of Christian Athletes]. I went to See You at the Pole at Spillane Middle School, and 250 children gathered to pray and worship the god of their choice. Our schools are anything but hostile to faith. When we have 40 faith-based partners who are in our schools on a daily basis, Cy-Fair ISD is not hostile to faith.

It’s not about walking around the halls professing your faith, but it is about the ability to pray. All of my children were involved in prayer groups at school. All of my children had classmates that they prayed for at school. So nothing could be further from the truth, and I really want that to be clear to everyone tonight. Cy-Fair ISD is not hostile to faith. Faith is embraced in our community; faith is a fabric of our community. Faith will continue to be a fabric in our school system.

Covey: My wife taught for 30 years, and she never felt threatened because she is a Christian, and we practice our Catholic faith. I’ll also make the statement that I look at my grandkids today, and I see my grandkids not really seeing color of any type. My grandkids are running around with African-American kids, they’re running around with Hispanic kids. There’s not a differentiation. They spend the night with each other.

I don’t think that in Cy-Fair we have that big of a problem. I think overall in the U.S. there’s a definite division, and it’s pretty obvious there is. You have to have been here at the [Hurricane Harvey] flood, and you have to have seen people coming in from all denominations to help. It didn’t matter what they believed in, it didn’t matter where they came from. They came in from all over the country. Someone in our district made the comment, ‘God tends to make us refocus on what’s right,’ and I think that’s exactly what happened.

Ogletree: I am a Christian, and I happen to pastor some 50 Cypress-Fairbanks ISD employees. I say a prayer over them at the beginning of every school year, and I speak a blessing upon them and say, ‘You are our missionaries in our public schools.’ Today when I visited Hamilton Middle School, Principal Kim Sempe and I talked about our faith openly in the halls, and she expressed that same thing. She said ‘This is not a job, this is a calling. I’m on mission here.’

I agree with Don—there is no hostility toward our faith in our schools. I know our people carry their faith and touch our students based upon their faith practice, and I thank God for that.

What is each candidate’s position on the use of public money—vouchers—for private and faith-based education?

Ogletree: I am opposed to the use of vouchers for private schools. Any use of vouchers would hurt our public education. I believe that if a parent wants to have their child in a private school, that’s a decision that they make and they should have the means to do that, but it should not take away from public education. I think Cy-Fair does such a great job in educating our students that it will be a waste of money for a parent to have their student in a private school, but that’s their choice. Everything and more can be found in our district, and I’m against vouchers.

Ryan: I’m not in favor of vouchers. When you already look at the inequitable funding we have, and you look at the fact that in Cy-Fair ISD, you have opportunities across the board on every campus. I don’t think the state would require the same accountability for the tax dollars that they do for us, and I think that’s an unfair playing field at the end of the day, and I’m not in favor of that.

Blasingame: I’m 100 percent a public school supporter. I believe it’s the foundation of our country, our democracy, our roots. So I’m not in favor us pulling it apart and funding vouchers. However, I’m very much in favor of finding out why families in our district choose to go to private or faith-based schools. Because I don’t think they can do it better than we can.

I think we need to listen to the voices of the community members who are not choosing us and find out what it is that they provide. It might not be that you’re choosing a school for a different program, but there might be a way that we can offer programming in a smaller setting that allows families to make some choice for themselves that doesn’t make them feel they need to choose private or faith-based schools.

Covey: I’m totally against vouchers, and my main problem with it is that there is no accountability and no transparency, but they are not held to the same accountability to us. I don’t understand how any conservative and/or liberal would be willing to take taxpayer dollars and put into a private entity that has no accountability and no transparency. I know Sen. [Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood] made the comment, ‘Well the parents will hold them accountable.’ Well I’m sorry, that’s not enough. It’s not the same thing as us being accountable to the state of Texas and to our students. Accountability to our students is what’s really important.

It takes all of us collectively to cover the cost for our students. My taxes I pay on my house are not going to pay for any one of my kids to go to school for that year. Anyone out there that thinks they need their taxes back, it would be the same thing as you wanting your homeowner’s association to only handle the street right in front of your house, and you’re going to use your money just to keep your street up-to-date. I am appalled and amazed that any of our elected representatives would be for that, and I think it’s tried to destruct public education.