Written by Grant Morrison | Staff Writer
Republican, Democratic and Libertarian candidates for the Texas State Board of Education are fighting for an edge in the election as November 5 approaches.
The Texas Board of Education is made up of 15 single-member districts, five of which are racially contested. There will be several new faces on the board this year, with some members retiring and others fighting for education savings accounts (a means for families to pay for them with their taxes). Kim is facing the front-runner as part of an ongoing infighting over the issue. For private school. The state commission voted in November 2022 to urge the Texas Legislature to reject the voucher program, but reconvened in February to remain neutral and leave the decision to lawmakers. Gov. Greg Abbott has made the issue a priority for the next legislative session.
District 10 spans much of central Texas, winding around Austin and Waco, stretching from Henderson County southeast of Dallas to Brazos County, and around metro Austin through Williamson County to Comal County north of San Antonio. It’s spreading.
The Republican candidate is incumbent Tom Maynard, who was first elected in 2012 and led a reversal from his anti-Republican stance at the February board meeting. He is a former Williamson County school board trustee, and the first slide on his website declares that “woke ideology has no place in Texas education.”
The Democratic candidate is Dr. Raquel Saenz Ortiz, assistant professor of education at Southwestern University at Georgetown. Her platform emphasizes a more equitable education system and ensures educators have a voice in decisions that affect their classrooms. She also laments that the politicization of schooling is causing teachers to leave the profession at higher rates than ever before.
