Nine seats on the Texas State Board of Education are on the ballot this November, including four in the greater Houston area alone.
Board members are responsible for setting curriculum and choosing instructional materials for more than five million public school students across Texas. The board also develops education policies, oversees the State Board of Educator Certification — which sets standards for teacher certification — and holds the power to veto charter school applications as their popularity grows.
It is one of the most influential governing bodies for public education in the entire state, according to Tricia Cave, a lobbyist working for the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE). ATPE has donated to democrat Allison Bush's campaign for District 5.
"It’s a super, super important role," Cave said in an interview with Houston Public Media. "They have a lot of influence on how your children are brought up and what they [learn], and that’s very, very important to a lot of families."
The current board makeup includes 11 Republicans and four Democrats representing areas all across the state. The money flowing into the campaigns reveals the continued potential influence of ultra-conservative and pro-charter school Political Action Committees, or PACs.
See below for a full list of the candidates.
This summer, the board greenlit several controversial changes to curriculum, including rewriting social studies lessons for kindergarten through eighth grade to de-emphasize world history in favor of Texas and U.S. history.
In September, after objections during public comment, the board approved changes to history lessons that portray Islam in a largely negative light. Those changes will take effect for the 2030-2031 school year.
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Cave, who spent 17 years teaching in Texas public schools, said once changes are approved by the board, schools can be stuck with them for years, though she added there isn't a specific rule barring the boards from updating or changing curriculum sooner.
"It’s almost a decade that you live with these standards," Cave said. "They have revised the social studies standards twice in the last decade, but usually it’s around a decade that your kids live with whatever standards have been adopted."
Nearly a third of the board seats are guaranteed to be taken by new faces, with six incumbents not seeking re-election this year.
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"Everything your children learn — the standards that they’re taught, the materials that they learn it from, how that [education] is delivered and even what your school board can and cannot do — is determined by the state board of education," Cave said. "These are only 15 people that control the entire state’s educational output."
Who is funding the candidates?
In recent elections, anti-critical race theory PACs and pro-charter school PACs dominated candidate fundraising as culture wars consumed local and state school board races. Campaign finance reports this cycle show those same PACs returning as top donors, and they were joined by another ultra-conservative group tied to a wealthy Texas oilman. Collectively, the groups contributed hundreds of thousands in monetary and in-kind support to campaigns.
Donations from the conservative PAC Texans For Educational Freedom boosted three republican candidates. The group has donated more than $300,000 in services, such as printing and sending mailers, as well as funding text message campaigns for Victoria Hinojosa for District 2, Kason Huddleston for District 9, and Tiffany Nelson, who is campaigning for District 6.
On their website, Texans for Educational Freedom says they are committed to fighting "critical race theory" and other “anti-American agendas and curriculum."
In a statement sent to Houston Public Media, Texans for Educational Freedom founder Christopher Zook Jr. said, "[Huddleston, Hinojosa, and Nelson] want to keep radical ideologies and political agendas out of the classroom and keep the focus on educating kids."
Texans for a United Conservative Majority PAC also donated roughly $50,000 to Hinojosa, Nelson and Huddleston. The political action committee is largely funded by West Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn. The Texas Tribune reported the group formed in 2024 as a spin-off of the Defend Texas Liberty PAC after that political action committee came under fire when its president hosted self-proclaimed white nationalist Nick Fuentes in 2023.
Texans for a United Conservative Majority has also donated to railroad commissioner Republican candidate Bo French, comptroller Republican candidate Don Huffines, and the group Texans for Greg Abbott.
The Hinojosa and Huddleston campaigns did not respond to requests for comments about accepting donations from either group.
Nelson declined an interview but shared a statement with Houston Public Media regarding the donations.
"I'm grateful for the support my campaign has received from Texans who share my priorities: improving student outcomes, getting parents more involved, and supporting our teachers," Nelson wrote. "The organizations backing my campaign support me because of those priorities, not the other way around."
The board has critical veto power over charter school applications that want to operate in Texas. In June, the board approved an application for the charter program Second Mile Schools despite critics highlighting its undisclosed ties to private equity and a 42% average graduation rate. While the school was approved to open two initial campuses, future expansions will no longer require board approval — only the consent of Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath.
Dallas hotelier Montgomery Bennett, a staunch voucher program supporter and charter school advocate, has donated at least $40,000 to four Republican candidates, including Huddleson, Nelson, Hinojosa and District 14 candidate Mindy Bumgarner. Texas Monthly reported Bennett was allegedly connected to a plan devised to funnel taxpayer-funded education dollars to private schools through a fictional charter school in 2023.
Nearly half of current District 7 board member Julie Pickren's fundraising came through a single donation from Nachiketa Bhatt, a Kentucky businessman who opened an adult day care center in Richmond, Texas, earlier this year, according to public records.
"Donors supporting other candidates doesn't [sic] affect my values, priorities, or independence," Pickren said.
Bhatt did not respond to a request for comment about his large donation to Pickren's campaign.
In a statement to Houston Public Media, Pickren said she met Bhatt at a business networking event where she said Bhatt supported her efforts to "broaden access to classical curriculum."
Bhatt sits on the board of Future Generations University. An online school offering master’s degrees in "applied community development" and also offers partnerships with "state departments, schools [and] non-profits" to "advance youth education and engagement" and "resources for teachers and educators."
Future Generations University did not respond to requests for comment about their K-12 program offerings, whether they have partnered with any schools or districts, or if they charge a fee for any programs.
Republicans relied heavily on PAC funding and far outraised democratic candidates.
Democrat Staci Childs accepted PAC funding from Charter Schools Now when she was running for re-election to the District 4 seat, but has since dropped out to focus on her bid for the Texas House. Democrat Tiffany Perkinz, running against Pickren in District 7, has accepted small donations from the Secular PAC and Moms for Public Education.
DISTRICT 2 –*no incumbent*
- Republican – Victoria Hinojosa
- Democrat – Thomas Ray Garcia
DISTRICT 4 –*Nielsen is the incumbent as she was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott in August when Staci Childs stepped down to focus on her race for Texas House District 131*
- Republican – Tammie Nielsen
- Democrat – Correta Mallet-Fontenot
DISTRICT 5 –*no incumbent*
- Republican – Mica Arrellano
- Democrat – Allison Bush
DISTRICT 6 –*no incumbent*
- Republican – Tiffany Nelson
- Democrat – Michelle Palmer
DISTRICT 7 – incumbent: Julie Pickren
- Republican – Julie Pickren
- Democrat – Tiffany Perkinz
DISTRICT 8 – incumbent: Audrey Young
- Republican – Audrey Young
- Democrat – Dana Van De Walker
DISTRICT 9 –*no incumbent*
- Republican – Kason Huddleston
- Democrat – Ericka Ledferd
DISTRICT 13 – incumbent: Tiffany Clark
- Republican – Carlos (Charlie) Garza
- Democrat – Tiffany Clark
DISTRICT 14 –*no incumbent*
- Republican – Mindy Bumgarner
- Democrat – Amy Taylor
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