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Voters will decide the outcome of five Texas State Board of Education races this November, but some challengers are seeking to reorganize the curriculum-setting agency, which they say is too biased toward partisan politics. I want it.
The stakes in this year’s board race are especially high, as the organization’s responsibilities next year may include revising Texas’ social studies curriculum, among other things. Some conservatives on the Republican-majority board, including the chairman who is up for re-election, have argued that public schools are negatively impacting children by the way they teach about America’s history of racism and its diversity. The movement is based on the idea that
Although the State Board of Education does not require candidates to have experience working in public education, the board’s 15 members decide what students learn in the classroom and what children need to graduate. $56 billion in state funds to support Texas public schools, even though they play an outsized role in providing and overseeing them.
The commission has complained in recent months about the Texas Education Agency’s proposed curriculum, which, if approved next month, would include Bible teaching in elementary school reading and language arts classes. The group delayed a vote on a long-awaited Native American studies course that covers the culture and history of tribes and nations in Texas and the United States. And in recent years, the board has rejected science textbooks and rescinded their adoption of textbooks because of their messages about climate change. He opposes school vouchers, a program that sets aside taxpayers’ money to fund children’s private education.
Board members serve staggered two- and four-year terms. Eight of the 15 seats are up for election this year, with three Republican incumbents running for reelection, and San Antonio Democrat Marisa Perez Diaz and Houston Democrat Stacey Childs running unopposed.
Following the recent resignation of board member Aicha Davis to run for the Texas House of Representatives, her board seat representing parts of North Texas is up for election, with Democrat Tiffany Clark now the challenger. I am running as a candidate without one.
That leaves five races that could potentially change the composition of the board, which currently consists of 10 Republicans and four Democrats.
Here are the candidates.
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District 1
Gustavo Leveles and Michael “Travis” Stevens are running for District 1, which includes parts of El Paso County and Bexar County. The seat is currently held by El Paso Democrat Melissa Ortega, who decided not to seek re-election.
Reveles, a Democrat who currently serves as communications director for the Canutillo School District outside El Paso, said he is running to ensure Texas’ border communities continue to have a presence at the state level. . Levels acknowledged that he has never worked as a teacher or educator, but said the board needs someone who respects educators as leaders and experts in their field. Levels’ top priority is to ensure that students from all backgrounds feel included in the curriculum. He also wants to tighten the approval process for charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run.
Mr. Stevens, a Republican, has 14 years of experience working in the education field, including stints as an English teacher and administrator. He currently serves as dean of the San Antonio School District. He wants teachers and educators to have more say in public education. Stevens said current standards for student learning are difficult to meet at certain grade levels and teachers face too many onerous professional development requirements. He also believes that using Texas’ standardized test, the Texas State Assessment of Academic Achievement (STAAR), as a graduation requirement is ineffective and harmful to students, and that the test measures how well students perform in the classroom. It is said that this does not necessarily reflect what has been learned. .
District 10
Incumbent Tom Maynard is running against Raquel Saenz Ortiz in District 10, which includes parts of Bell and Williamson counties.
Mr. Maynard, a Florence Republican, has served on the board for 11 years. He currently chairs the board’s School Finance Committee, helping oversee the $56 billion state fund known as the Permanent School Fund. Mr. Maynard has been in education for more than 30 years, including more than 12 years as an agricultural science teacher. He also served as executive director of the Texas FFA Association. In an email response to questions, Maynard said her top priorities are working to improve the quality of instructional materials, creating and implementing a library book review process, and completing revisions to social studies and math standards. These are listed as some of the matters.
Ortiz, a Democrat, is an assistant professor of education at Southwestern University and has more than 15 years of experience in the education field. She began her career as a 6th grade social studies teacher in South Texas and has served on workgroups that helped revise curriculum standards in Texas and Massachusetts. Ortiz, who has also worked with the Texas Ethnic Studies Network, which advocates for more ethnic studies in schools, supports a state curriculum that is project-based and inclusive of all backgrounds and cultures. She also said she would like to see the board make more decisions that are less focused on each member’s personal politics.
district 11
Rayna Glasser, Brandon Hall and Hunter Crowe are running in District 11, which includes parts of Parker and Tarrant counties. The seat is currently held by incumbent Patricia “Pat” Hardy, a longtime Fort Worth Republican who lost in the March primary.
Glasser, a Democrat with nearly 20 years of teaching experience in Texas, is an instructional coach in the Crowley School District. She said her and other candidates’ experience as current educators will help the school board make decisions in the best interests of children and teachers. Glasser wants the board to reconsider graduation requirements, particularly the requirement that students pass the STAAR in order to receive a diploma. Regarding school curriculum, she believes schools should teach the facts – “the good, the bad and the ugly” – and not exclude relevant information based on personal preferences. Glasser also pointed out that the classroom is not the appropriate place to teach so-called Christian values.
Mr. Hall, the Republican who defeated Mr. Hardy, is a young pastor who said Texas has a “broken public education system” and children “face an onslaught against innocence.” Specifically, how America’s history of racism is taught in the classroom, and how he teaches it. calls them “obscene library books” and “sexual agendas.” Hall did not respond to requests for an interview, but on his website he declares his commitment to “making a high-quality, conservative education a reality for all students” and to making it easier to establish charter schools. Commitment is stated. He also wants parents to “play a central role in shaping their children’s education policies.”
Green Party candidate Hunter Crowe is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Texas at Arlington and recently earned an associate’s degree from Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, according to his campaign website. Crowe, who did not respond to requests for an interview, is active on a platform that emphasizes the importance of state curricula that teach language, art, science and the history of social movements, his website says. He also opposes the use of standardized tests as the main criteria for graduation and teacher pay.
district 12
Incumbent Pam Little is defending her seat against George King in District 12, which includes Collin County.
Little, a Fairview Republican, has served on the board since 2019 and currently serves as vice chair of the group. She is part owner of a fencing company and has taught small business management courses at community colleges, according to her State Board of Education biography. Mr. Little was not available for an interview, but he opposes the fossil fuel industry and social studies standards, which “water down our history” and present a “biased view,” according to his campaign website. He said he had cast a vote. She cited among other accomplishments during her time on the board the introduction of phonics-based curriculum standards, approval of personal financial literacy education, and updates to the Texas Dyslexia Handbook.
King, a Democrat, recently retired after 40 years in education, including stints as a teacher and administrator. A former Plano school district educator believes “politics and ideology” have consumed much of the state board, citing as an example a proposed curriculum for elementary school reading and language arts that includes Bible instruction. He said he would like to help the committee focus on accuracy, comprehensiveness and truth, rather than political ideology, which could lead to “whitewashing” of history, as it works to revise the social studies curriculum in the near future. said.
District 15
Current board president Aaron Kinsey is running against Morgan Kirkpatrick and Jack Westbrook in District 15, which includes Ector and Lubbock counties.
Kinsey, a Midland Republican, was elected to the board in 2022 and appointed board chair by Gov. Greg Abbott last December. Mr. Kinsey, who did not respond to interview requests, is a former Air Force pilot who now oversees an aviation oilfield services company in Midland, according to his online biography. At this year’s Texas Republican convention, Kinsey said he didn’t know much about the State Board of Education before running, but that he “understands the greatness of Texas” and that his family’s values are reflected in public schools. He admitted that he had not done so. One of Kinsey’s top priorities, he told the convention, is for schools to teach Texas children “how to think and how not to hate themselves.” He also advocated a curriculum that incorporated “capitalism and self-reliance as a Nobel quest.” At the end of his speech, Mr. Kinsey declared, “We have a Speaker who will fight for three letter words: GO-D, GOP, and USA.”
Kirkpatrick, a Democrat, is a marketing coordinator for an engineering company and previously worked as a teacher in Lubbock for 14 years. She decided to run for board in part because she didn’t want to see Kinsey run unopposed, as she did in the 2022 general election. She believes people on the board have forgotten that decisions must be made “with the best interests of the students in mind.” Kirkpatrick advocates for giving teachers more support in the classroom, eliminating high-stakes testing requirements and ensuring students receive an accurate and comprehensive education.
Westbrook, a Libertarian, is an Air Force veteran who has been running for various offices in Texas since 2018. She has worked in the education field as a substitute teacher for approximately 15 years and is a former school board member for the Gonzales School District. He cites as an example his opposition to continued attempts by state authorities to inject conservative Christian values into the public school system, and supports the exclusion of political and religious ideologies from schools. He said he is running for state commission to do so. Introducing a political agenda “is not in the interests of the children in any way,” he said.
