This is a divisive, tumultuous time for Texas public education. The 15 elected members of the State Board of Education play a significant role in deciding how, and what, 5 million students are taught in 1,247 Texas public school districts.
The board currently is made up of nine Republicans and six Democrats, each representing about 2 million Texans. Voters should look beyond partisan politics and consider the qualifications of candidates, weeding out those who hold extremist beliefs or espouse conspiracy theories. Focus on the candidates who support children and learning.
District 1: This district encompasses 30 counties from Zapata County to El Paso County, including 21 percent of Bexar County. District 1’s incumbent, Georgina Cecilia Pérez, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election.
The District 1 Republican primary features two candidates, Michael Travis Stevens and Lani Popp.
Popp previously ran for the SBOE District 5 seat. Popp chose not to meet with us this election cycle, but we met with her during her previous run. At that time she told us slavery was not the primary cause of the Civil War and stated “there’s some flaws in evolution.”
We recommend her opponent, Michael Travis Stevens, a Northside ISD instructional coach with 11 years of teaching experience. Stevens, a conservative, spoke to our board about keeping politics out of education and putting the needs of students first.
In the Democratic primary, there are three candidates: Melissa N. Ortega, Laura Marquez and Omar Yanar.
Each supports a more inclusive, equitable curriculum for students of all backgrounds, which is salient, given our current political climate.
Marquez has worked as a special education paraprofessional and in the field of social work but lacks the experience of the other candidates.
Yanar, of El Paso, holds advanced degrees from Stanford and Harvard. In 2014, he founded the El Paso Leadership Academy, a public charter school. We appreciate his innovative work and ideas for empowering teachers and students.
But our recommendation goes to Melissa N. Ortega.
Ortega also lives in El Paso and has devoted her life to education. She is an instructor at the University of Texas at El Paso and American College of Education. Holding a Ph.D. in education, she’s worked six years as a teacher and six years as a district administrator teaching at the university.
While we support quality charter schools, we also advocate for increased scrutiny and accountability — a view Ortega shares. This is vital because the SBOE also endorses or vetoes charter school recommendations from the state’s education commissioner.
“I would make sure to review all the applications that come in for more charter schools,” she told us. “There are more and more of them, and there is no accountability. I truly believe in our public schools system and I want to make it better.”
District 3: This district spans 16 counties from Starr County to Gonzales County and includes 79 percent of Bexar County.
Two Republicans, Lana Jean Holland and Ken Morrow, are running to face District 3 incumbent Marisa B. Pérez-Diaz, a Democrat, in the general election.
In this Republican primary, we can offer no recommendation. Holland, a conservative, is from George West. Although her campaign materials reflect 25 years of education experience as a teacher, principal and school board member and notes she also earned a superintendent certificate, we are concerned Holland doesn’t seem to have a solid grasp of how the school system works and what her role on the board would be.
Holland did not meet with us, but in her online campaign material and social media posts, she advocates campus control over curriculum: “The state board should not dictate to the local schools. … Rural schools and city schools should be able to manage their curriculum and programs fitting their location.”
We made several efforts to reach Ken Morrow, but to no avail.
District 5: This district spans seven counties, including Guadalupe, Caldwell, part of Williamson, Hays, Travis, Bastrop and Blanco.
The Republican primary features two candidates: Robert Morrow, a conspiracy theorist who is unqualified for any elected office, and Mark Loewe.
Loewe, a researcher who holds a Ph.D. in physics, is a school choice advocate who has previously run for Congress as a Libertarian. Just as with the other candidates, we offered meetings via Zoom and phone, but Loewe said he would only meet with us in person, which we declined. We can offer no recommendation.
In the Democratic primary, incumbent Rebecca Bell-Metereau, faces two challengers, Kevin Guico and Juan Juárez.
Juárez, who is originally from Mexico, chose not to meet with us, but according to information online, he is a high school principal at a KIPP charter school in Austin. Some of his priorities include making education more inclusive and fighting for ethnic studies.
Guico said he would be the first Asian American elected to the board. He got his start working as a tutor and teacher’s aide in the AmeriCorps program. He also was a teacher in Dallas and now works for an Austin education organization. His vision includes a more inclusive curriculum and educational equity for students from all backgrounds.
But, once again, we recommend Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a film professor at Texas State University, who has earned a second term.
Bell-Metereau has worked to improve curriculum, often speaking up to represent interests of students of all backgrounds.
Bell-Metereau is concerned about efforts to censor books in school libraries in Texas and history curriculum not being inclusive. And she opposes the high-stakes nature of STAAR and is “scrupulous” about charter schools because of the funding that is taken from public schools.