When U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz walked the halls of The Imani School in Houston last week, the visit did not go unnoticed.
Photos of the Republican senator touring the predominantly Black Christian school, talking with students, and meeting with parents quickly circulated, prompting criticism from some members of the community who questioned why the school would welcome a politician whose positions have often put him at odds with many Black voters. Some characterized the visit as little more than a photo opportunity and questioned whether Cruz’s appearance suggested the school supported his politics.
Pat Hogan Williams, director of The Imani School, says it did not.
“We are proud of what we do. We are happy to show it off,” Williams told the Defender. “Many people come to visit our school. They want to know what we’re doing, that we’re successful. And so we show them.”
Williams said Cruz’s office contacted the school after hearing about its academic success and asked if the senator could visit. The school welcomed Cruz, just as it has welcomed political leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and others from across the political spectrum during its nearly four decades in Houston.
“We’ve had a Republican president, a Democratic first lady, two congresspersons, mayors, educators, entrepreneurs coming from out of state, and even the British Broadcasting Company,” Williams said. “Different races, different political persuasions.”
Cruz visited Imani on Aug. 25 as part of an event highlighting school choice programs. According to his office, he met with students, teachers, and families and discussed both Texas’ Education Freedom Account program and the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit.
For Williams, allowing a sitting U.S. senator to visit was not an endorsement of Cruz or his politics.
“That doesn’t mean that we agree with his stand on anything,” she said.
A visit, not a political rally
Williams also pushed back against the perception that students were assembled for a political event.
There was no schoolwide assembly and no campaign speech, she said. Most students were not told in advance that Cruz would be visiting.
Instead, Cruz followed much the same route that other visitors take through Imani.
He read a Bible story to a kindergarten class, stopped to listen to first-graders read, and observed first-graders working on coding and programming in a STEM classroom. He also visited an eighth-grade civics class, where he talked about his upbringing and his father’s Cuban background, and answered students’ questions.
The eighth graders were among the few students told in advance about the visit because they were studying government and would have the opportunity to interact with an elected official, Williams said.
“It wasn’t a campaign rally, (it) wasn’t a political event for our students,” Williams said. “There was no assembly. Our children weren’t asked or indoctrinated.”
Cruz also heard the school choir perform and met with a small group of parents to discuss why they chose Imani and school choice programs.
The senator’s office described the visit as an opportunity “to celebrate historic school choice victories.”
“It was inspiring to visit The Imani School and see firsthand the incredible work its teachers and staff are doing to prepare the next generation of Texas students,” Cruz said in a statement following the visit.
He called school choice “the civil rights issue of the 21st century” and said federal scholarship programs would give more children the opportunity to attend schools such as Imani.
The American Federation for Children, which helped arrange the visit, said 60 of Imani’s 402 students are recipients of Texas Education Freedom Account awards.
‘I can’t speak to what his motive was’
That official framing, along with photographs distributed after the tour, contributed to questions about whether Imani had been used as a backdrop to promote Cruz’s school choice agenda.
Williams said she cannot answer that question for the senator.
“Honestly, I don’t know what it was for him,” she said. “I don’t know what his motive was. I can’t speak to that.”
She noted that Imani has been photographed with numerous high-profile visitors over the years, including former President George H.W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and the late U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
What Williams can say, she said, is what Cruz saw while he was there.
“Regardless of what his motive was, what he saw was, he saw a school that celebrates Black culture,” Williams said. “He saw Black excellence. He saw achievements. Black inventions on display.”
The school describes itself as offering an academically rigorous education to an African American student body while incorporating cultural education and a faith-based foundation specifically designed for children of color.
Williams said that the mission was on full display during Cruz’s visit.
“He saw first graders who were reading fluently above grade level,” she said. “He saw children who were smart and capable, engaged, and confident. And he saw children who were excelling.”
That, Williams said, matters more to her than the political affiliation of the person walking through the door.
“Regardless of what his motive was, what he saw was, he saw a school that celebrates Black culture. He saw Black excellence. He saw achievements. Black inventions on display.”
Pat Hogan Williams
“We have always been about exceeding expectations,” she said. “We’ve challenged the expectations that people put on our children.”
Parents question lack of notification
Another concern raised following the visit was why parents were not notified beforehand.
On that point, Williams acknowledged she understands the criticism.
“In hindsight, perhaps I should have done that,” she said.
But Williams said notifying parents before visits from public officials has not generally been the school’s practice.
The exception, she recalled, was when U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock visited while promoting a book. Because the school was helping promote the event, families were notified.
“When any of the other people have come, we’ve never announced it,” Williams said.
The school may now have to consider whether visits by elected officials, particularly highly polarizing ones, should be handled differently in an era when a few photographs can travel across social media before students have made it home from school.
Williams believes much of the reaction to this particular visit can be traced directly to the visitor.
“Ted Cruz is a very controversial and a polarizing figure,” she said.
As a nonprofit organization, Williams said, Imani is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates or take partisan political positions.
What school choice money means for Imani
Williams also sought to clear up what she said is another misconception: That Imani received government money in exchange for hosting Cruz or that the school directly receives Education Freedom Account funds simply by participating in the program.
“The school doesn’t get a dime,” Williams said.
Under the Texas program, qualifying families receive funds for approved educational expenses, including private school tuition. If a family chooses to use those dollars toward Imani’s tuition, the school receives its regular tuition payment, Williams explained.
“Our tuition is what we get,” she said. “The same tuition, whether it comes directly out of a parent’s personal funds, or if it comes to us from the funds that the parents have been given to distribute as they choose.”
Cruz also used the visit to promote the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, which is scheduled to take effect in 2027. The program creates a federal tax credit for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations, which can then provide scholarships to eligible students for qualified K-12 educational expenses.
Williams said Imani’s decision to participate in school choice programs should not be confused with a change in the school’s identity or mission.
Founded in 1988, Imani has built its educational philosophy around academic achievement, Christian faith, and the affirmation of Black children in their history and culture.
“We tell our children every day that their history matters, that their culture matters, that their voices matter, that their intellect matters,” Williams said.
And that, she said, was true before Cruz arrived, while he walked through the school, and after he left.
“We’re not defined by who walks through our halls, who visits Imani,” Williams said. “All kinds of people visit Imani. We’re defined instead by what we do with our children, what we teach our children, how we see our children, how we teach our children to see themselves.”
For Williams, that is the distinction getting lost in the controversy.
“Imani has been Imani since 1988,” she said. “We have never wavered in who we are, who we serve, and what our mission is. Tuesday didn’t change that. It just gave one more person an opportunity to see it.”
