One thing candidates running for a seat on the State Board of Education often have to confront is their surprise at how little authority the position really has. Big ideas for how to improve teaching? To recruit teachers or inspire students? Think money ought to be spent differently, or taxes lowered?
Save it for another race, like a seat in the Legislature or, more often, a trustee’s spot on a local ISD.
After interviewing candidates for three school board positions in the March 1 primary, we found that a useful reminder.
Still, from how much emphasis to give slavery’s role in the Civil War, to who makes the list of American heroes in a middle school textbook, to what to say — and not to say — about sex and reproduction, decisions by the State Board of Education have a way of riling up voters like few others.
District 4 Democrats: Staci Childs
Voters have five options in the Democratic primary for the District 4 seat, but two candidates stood out to us as especially impressive.
Marvin Johnson, a former high school math teacher and chemical engineer who is a lecturer at North American University in Houston, had good ideas for how to improve schools, but he struggled with the narrow scope of authority granted to the state school board.
“What I see right now is not working,” he told us, adding that he was “disappointed” to learn how little say the SBOE has over how schools operate when he first filed to run. He’ll try to convince lawmakers and others to join his call to expand its responsibilities, should he be elected.
We’d rather see Democrats choose a candidate who promises to work full-time to improve school curriculum. We believe Staci Childs, a former teacher in Georgia, is that candidate. Though now a practicing attorney, she’s the founder of an education-related nonprofit called Girl Talk University.
We especially liked her ideas about how Texas’ use of TEKS standards — short for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills — is failing some kids and their schools. Often, she said, all that stands between a student and knowing what’s required is a specific gap in their knowledge left unfilled from a previous grade. A quick effort to identify and bridge that gap can quickly allow them to come up to grade level and pass, without the stigma of being held back.
“I don’t want to say remedial, because that has a negative connotation,” Childs told us. “But we need a serious plan to address the TEKS, since … they do not address these learning gaps.”
She’s right that the curriculum should be redesigned to give teachers more flexibility in helping their students learn what’s required by the TEKS.
Three other candidates are running, though none met with the board: Theldon Branch, a former commissioner at the Port of Houston; Coretta Mallet-Fontenot, an HISD teacher who ran for school board in 2013; and HISD teacher and youth baseball coach Larry McKinzie.
District 6 GOP: Will Hickman
Republican voters in District 6 have little incentive to unseat incumbent trustee Will Hickman, who won the seat in a tight general election race against Democrat Michelle Palmer in 2018. His opponent in the March 1 primary is Chuck Wolfe, a Harris County Board of Education trustee who was the subject of a 4-2 vote to officially censure him for alleged sexual harassment. A woman claimed Wolfe had asked her out on a date while she was applying for a job with the educational agency. At least one board member urged Wolfe to resign.
Wolfe denied any wrongdoing, and said he was a victim of a setup. But he also hasn’t made a case for why GOP voters should dump the incumbent trustee and nominate Wolfe to face Palmer in the fall, who is running again. She is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Hickman, 48, an in-house attorney for an oil and gas major, has kids in Cy-Fair schools. He was named by the chairman of the SBOE to lead an ad hoc committee exploring a program that could better understand career goals and aptitude of seventh- and eighth-graders, and then allow them to tailor their high school experience to suit their ambitions. He is cautious on approving new textbooks — probably too cautious, by our judgment — concerning sex ed. He joined other board members in rejecting textbooks that sought to provide “comprehensive sex ed,” but did successfully push for another textbook that provides an “abstinence-based approach.” That means students are told abstinence is the most effective form of birth control, but doesn’t ignore other means. He said he found the book imperfect, but preferred it to simply no officially sanctioned text for the subject.
Republican voters should advance him to the November general election.
District 7 Republican: Danny Surman
When SBOE member Matt Robinson decided not to run in this red-leaning district, four Republican candidates jumped in the race for his seat: A teacher, an engineer, a six-year veteran of the Alvin ISD school board and a police detective.
All of them are conservative, and three of them have made fighting the teaching of critical race theory in Texas schools a top priority. The fourth candidate, Abolaji Ayobami, impressed us with his tighter focus on issues of real consequence to students, parents and teachers in Texas.
Ayobami says he’s determined to improve education by keeping a close eye over the curriculum and the grade-level educational standards the SBOE approves. That’s a welcome acknowledgment of the most critical roles played by SBOE members, and a refreshing break from the endless hand wringing over CRT.
Unfortunately, Ayobami has no previous experience in public office and lacks the connection to schools that two of his opponents have. He reported just $3,500 in contributions, compared to between $11,000 and $18,000 for his opponents.
Julie Pickren has the kind of experience we like to see in candidates for a statewide role like the SBOE. She spent six years as an elected trustee for Alvin ISD before stepping down in 2021. She lost us, though, in her description of why her top priority would be to keep CRT out of the schools — something the Legislature has already made illegal anyway. In completing a Ballotpedia questionnaire about top priorities if elected, she explained that she’d fight critical race theory because, “CRT is socialism and will kill the American Dream for our children.”
CRT is an arcane academic lens used by some scholars to interpret American history through understanding the impact slavery had on the development of its legal institutions. It’s not taught in public schools and has little to do with socialism, which is a system of economics the overwhelming majority of Americans rejected generations ago.
A member of Texas’ state board of education ought to know the difference.
Middle-school social studies teacher Danny Surman, 30, of Galveston seems most likely to keep his focus on traditional SBOE concerns, and for that reason appears the best choice in this field of candidates. He doesn’t have broad experience outside the classroom, though he did serve as a GOP precinct chair in Galveston County. While also promising to fight CRT, he had the sense to add more than a little needed context. “My district does not teach CRT and it should not be taught in public schools. However, we also must clearly say what we are for teaching.”
What Texas kids need to learn more of, he said, is history, civics and about the democracy they live in. “They are often skimmed over. That needs to change,” he said.
Candidate Michael Barton of Sugar Land has an impressive background as an Air Force veteran, a Naval War College graduate and a former high-level staffer in Washington. He works as a police detective. He’s running to put families and especially children at the top of the SBOE’s priority list. We can’t argue with that, but we liked both Ayobami’s and Surman’s tighter focus on SBOE duties.
We recommend voters choose Surman.
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