Additional Information

Candidate Survey Responses

RESPONSES TO THE 2026 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:

Please describe any specific goals or legislative initiatives you would pursue to strengthen the state’s public education system.

My number one priority for strengthening our state's public education system is to significantly raise the basic per pupil allotment from $6160 to at least $7045. This increase will at least correct for the effects of inflation, allow school districts to decrease or eliminate budget deficits and lower local property taxes. Priority number two is to significantly decrease unfunded regulation of public schools either by fully funding those initiatives or eliminating them completely. For example, increasing safety requirements are a sadly necessary expenditure, but forcing local districts to meet the costs without adequate state funding is only increasing budget shortfalls and ultimately increasing local property taxes. Priority number three is to create real, measurable standards for private schools receiving voucher money to meet. If tax payer dollars are going to be given to private schools, there must be measurable requirements for accountability, teacher training and credentials and testing standards.

The 89th Legislature passed an $8 billion school funding bill, HB 2. However, despite years of unanswered “inflationary challenges, a large majority of that funding was earmarked to specific programs and did not supply districts with significant flexible funding, leaving the majority of Texas students in districts with deficit budgets and other significant funding challenges. Do you believe Texas public schools should receive additional funding? If so, how should the state pay for it, and should that funding be earmarked at the state level or provide districts with flexible dollars?

Local control of funds is vital. The legislature is stifling the creativity and problem solving skills of local school boards and administrations by consistently attaching strings to funding. Not all districts have the same needs. Locals know best what is needed in their district. Elected school boards are the established manner for voters to correct and change the direction of their public schools, not legislative actions and decisions. So yes, the basic per pupil allotment must be significantly increased with no strings attached. This increase can be paid for using budget surpluses( currently expected to exceed 20 billion dollars), carefully considered increases in sales taxes, and the use of what were once called "sin taxes" applied to alcohol. This type of tax could be applied to CBD sales, future legalized marijuana sales, poker rooms and other new forms of gambling..

Education savings accounts (ESAs) redirect public funds to private or home schools. How do you believe Texas should fund public schools, traditional and charter, alongside ESA vouchers? How should ESA spending be held accountable to taxpayers?

In 2025, 55% of the per pupil funding of public schools, about $15,000 per student cam from local property taxes. That means that at most the state is providing less than half of public school funds. That must change. Although local property taxes provide districts with the flexibility needed to meet local needs, the burden on property owners is too great. The state should step up to provide the majority of funds rather than the minority.
As far as ESA's are concerned, private schools receiving these funds must meet the same accountability requirements as public schools. That includes: STAAR testing, curriculum requirements, teacher training and certification requirements, and accounting requirements.

Under HB 2, passed in 2025, all educators in core content courses (math, English, science, and social studies) must be certified by 2030. While this is a good start, more can and should be done to ensure high-quality teachers continue to enter the classroom. What are your suggestions to improve the quality of the new teacher pipeline?

New teachers can and should come from a variety of backgrounds and levels of experience. College and university teacher education curriculums need to shift away from pedagogy and theory and towards more in the classroom apprenticeship. The most challenging aspects of teaching: discipline management, time management, expectation level are best learned by doing rather than by reading. New teachers also need to be protected from being "thrown to the wolves." Schools should not be assigning brand new teachers to the classes who have the most academic and behavior issues while the vets get the older and better behaved. New teachers who join the profession from other careers need the same: more apprenticeship, better assignments. The problem isn't just fewer new teachers entering the profession; it is teachers leaving the profession in their first two or three years in the classroom.

The 89th Legislature passed legislation creating a new mechanism to provide only classroom teachers with tiered raises based on early years of service and their district’s student enrollment. While the raises were significant, they did not apply to all campus educators, and the program created a significant negative funding stream at the district level due to unfunded increased costs for non-salary compensation tied to payroll, such as TRS retirement contributions. Do you support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators? How would you ensure that compensation keeps pace with inflation and remains competitive with other professions?

Yes, I do favor an across the board, no strings attached, pay raise for Texas teachers. The legislation to do this should include language requiring regular increases tied to inflation. This is a simple matter of writing and passing legislation to achieve these ends. But, the will to do this can only be achieved by changing the composition of the legislature.

The high cost of health insurance for active and retired educators continues to reduce take-home pay, with educators shouldering the vast majority of their ever-increasing heath care costs. How would you address the affordability and sustainability of educator health care, particularly the TRS-ActiveCare and TRS-Care programs?

Reducing the cost of health care for active and retired educators in Texas is a must, but not unique to educators. Health care costs are damaging all Texans and affordability measures in the main, will positively impact educators. For educators, one specific issue is that as a pool of insured people, educators --mostly women who also cover children-- use more health care than pools comprised more of younger men. The State of Texas offers insurance to all state employee  separately from educators. It's time to explore adding educators to other state employees. It might also be possible to look at allowing educators to buy into Medicaid before they turn 65. This problem is going to require thinking outside the box.

Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) should remain a defined-benefit pension plan for all current and future members? If not, what is your plan to provide a secure retirement for Texas educators, particularly considering that state law has been set up such that most districts do not participate in Social Security?

TRS should remain a defined-benefit pension for all current and future members. To do otherwise is to risk the financial security of retirees and future retirees. Additionally, all school districts should allow employees to opt into the social security system.

The Legislature has passed a new “through-year” multi-test model under HB 8. What role should standardized testing play in evaluating students, teachers, and schools? Should test results continue to determine A–F accountability ratings or teacher pay?

Standardized testing should play a role in evaluating students, teachers and schools. These test provide useful data for this type of evaluation. However, the data is only as good as the tests themselves. Regardless of how many or when these test are given, Texas must insure that the tests are grade level appropriate and that they reflect the knowledge and skills we believe necessary for future success. Multiple choice, bubble tests are not the best way to assess elementary students. Asking a nine year old to sit silently and focus their attention only on words on the screen in front of them is not an age appropriate manner of assessment. By the time they reach middle and high school, students are already burned out on testing, cynical as to its importance, and are tested in conditions (crowded computer labs, small desks with a slow laptop, unfamiliar staff monitor, unusual schedules) that undermine the best efforts of teacher and student. If testing is going to produce valid data, it must be carried out in age appropriate ways.

Recent legislative debates have focused on “parental rights” in education. In your view, what is the appropriate balance between accommodating the often conflicting wishes of individual parents while maintaining policies that reflect the broader community’s educational priorities and still providing consistency and an appropriate level of professional deference to educators?

Parental rights are a local issue not a state issue. We must stop legislating broad solutions to what are local problems. Parents who object to their child using a name not their given name, who are concerned about bathroom usage, who believe a teacher is straying from appropriate curriculum should appeal to and work with their own locally elected school board to resolve those concerns not the legislature. Local boards and administrators should be able to mediate these kinds of disputes without a legislative mandate. The best solutions are going to come from the folks with their boots on the ground not from hyper partisan legislation. When local solutions fall short, voters can choose new board members regularly to better reflect the communities needs.

HB 3 (2023) imposed new school safety requirements but did not fully fund them. Although the 89th Legislature increased the School Safety Allotment, many districts continue to face substantial unfunded staffing and facility costs associated with school safety laws. How would you make schools safer and ensure the state provides adequate funding to meet safety mandates?

The solution is to pay for the safety upgrades mandated in full and on a continuing basis. Those required armed guards get paid monthly. The state budget has been and will continue to be in surplus. The state can pay to cover these costs, it just doesn't want to do so.

What do you believe is the proper role of the State Board of Education, the Texas Education Agency, and local school districts in setting curriculum standards and selecting instructional materials?

The TEA should continue to create and enforce curriculum standards. The TEKS provide the necessary framework and guidance for schools to succeed. The selection of instructional materials and their implementation should fall to local district administrators and school boards. State mandates in the area of materials and instruction inhibit the creativity and problem solving of teachers and schools. Communities, students and staffs differ from district to district. They have different needs, different challenges, and different resources. If local districts fail to provide appropriate instruction and materials, voters in those districts have the power to change the local board.

State law allows educators and other public employees to voluntarily join professional associations such as ATPE and have membership dues deducted from their paychecks at no cost to taxpayers. Do you support or oppose allowing public employees to continue exercising this right? Why or why not?

Public employees should absolutely continue to exercise this right. It costs tax payers nothing and provides employees with steady, reliable access to help and advice when needed. This is a win-win situation that should be allowed to continue.

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