This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune.
Four Republicans prevailed Tuesday night in five contested Texas State Board of Education races, cementing a Republican majority on the board responsible for determining what the state’s 5.5 million public schoolchildren learn in the classroom.
Taking the election results into account, the board now consists of ten Republicans and five Democrats. Democrats regained a seat after it was vacated by Aicha Davis, who resigned to run for the Texas House.
Republican incumbents Tom Maynard (District 10), Pam Little (District 12) and Aaron Kinsey (District 15) defeated their Democratic challengers, while Republican Brandon Hall, who defeated former GOP incumbent Patricia “Pat” Hardy (District 11), in the March primaries, also won.
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In the race for the District 1 seat currently held by El Paso Democrat Melissa Ortega, who decided not to seek another term, Democrat Gustavo Reveles defeated Republican challenger Michael “Travis” Stevens.
Democrats Marisa Perez-Diaz (District 3) and Staci Childs (District 4), both uncontested, retained their seats. Tiffany Clark, a Democrat running to fill the District 13 seat vacated by Davis, also won after running uncontested.
The board’s 15 members play an extraordinary role in determining what students learn in the classroom and what it takes for children to graduate, and in overseeing a $56 billion state grant to support public schools in Texas.
The stakes of the board races were particularly high this year, as the group’s responsibilities next year could include overhauling Texas’ social studies curriculum. Some conservatives in the Republican-dominated administration campaigned on the idea that public schools are harming children by the way they teach America’s history of racism and its diversity.
The board has filed complaints in recent months about a curriculum proposed by the Texas Education Agency that, if approved later this month, would insert Bible teachings into elementary school reading and language arts classes. The group has postponed a vote on a long-awaited Native Studies course that covers the culture and history of tribes and nations across Texas and the U.S. opposition to school vouchers, a program that would set aside tax dollars for parents to pay for their children’s private school tuition.
Of the eight races this year, here are the results of the five contested races.
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District 1
Democrat Gustavo Reveles defeated Republican Michael “Travis” Stevens in District 1, which includes El Paso County and part of Bexar County.
Reveles, who is currently communications director for the Canutillo School District outside El Paso, said he wanted to ensure the Texas border community maintains a presence at the state level. While he acknowledges he has not worked as a teacher or educator, Reveles said the board needs people who respect teachers as leaders and experts in the field. The most important thing for Reveles is to ensure that students from all backgrounds feel represented in the curricula. He would also like to see a more rigorous approval process for charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run.
District 10
In District 10, which includes Bell County and part of Williamson County, Republican Tom Maynard defeated Democrat Raquel Sáenz Ortiz.
Maynard from Florence served on the board for eleven years. He currently chairs the board’s school finance committee and oversees the state’s $56 billion endowment known as the Permanent School Fund. Maynard has more than thirty years of education and has spent well over a dozen of them as an agricultural science teacher. He also served as executive director of the Texas FFA Association. Maynard’s priorities include improving the quality of instructional materials, establishing and implementing a library book review process and completing revisions to the social studies and math standards as some of his top priorities. He has also said he opposes so-called “woke ideologies” in public education, according to his website, and has pledged to “continue to fight to ensure that students are not exposed to radical and inappropriate content in Texas classrooms .’
District 11
In District 11, which includes Parker County and part of Tarrant County, Republican Brandon Hall defeated Democrat Rayna Glasser and Green Party candidate Hunter Crow.
Hall is a youth pastor who has described Texas as having “a broken public education system” where children are “facing an assault on their innocence” — especially with the way America’s history of racism is taught in classrooms and what he calls “obscene library books ‘ has mentioned. and a “sexualized agenda.” Hall lists on his website his commitment “to making quality, conservative education a reality for all students” and making charter schools easier to establish. He also wants parents to “play a central role in shaping their children’s educational path.”
District 12
In District 12, which includes Collin County, Republican Pam Little defeated Democrat George King.
Little, of Fairview, has served on the board since 2019 and is currently the group’s vice chairman. She co-owns a fencing company and has taught small business management courses at the community college, according to her biography from the State Board of Education. Little has voted against presenting a “biased view” of the fossil fuel industry and social studies standards that “dilute our history,” according to her campaign website. Her accomplishments on the board included implementing phonics-based curriculum standards, passing personal financial literacy and updating the Texas Dyslexia Handbook.
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District 15
In District 15, which includes Ector and Lubbock counties, Republican Aaron Kinsey defeated Democrat Morgan Kirkpatrick and Libertarian Jack Westbrook.
Kinsey, of Midland, was elected to the board in 2022 and appointed chairman by Gov. Greg Abbott last December. Kinsey 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 Republican Party Convention in Texas, Kinsey acknowledged that he didn’t know much about the State Board of Education before running for office, but that he “understood the greatness of Texas” and that his family’s values were not represented in public schools . One of Kinsey’s top priorities, he said at the convention, is for schools to teach Texas children “how to think and not hate themselves.” He also advocated curricula that embrace “capitalism and self-reliance as noble quests.” Kinsey declared at the end of his speech: “You have a chairman who will fight for these three-letter words: GO-D, GOP and USA.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom that informs and engages Texans about state politics and policy. More information can be found at texastribune.org.
