Methodology

Teach the Vote is a project of the Association of Texas Professional Educators (ATPE). ATPE is a nonprofit organization that does not endorse candidates but provides information to our members and the public regarding candidates' positions on public education issues and ATPE priorities.

ATPE conducts a candidate survey project each election cycle to enable candidates to communicate their views on public education to our membership and the general public. All known candidates for the State Board of Education, state legislative offices, and certain statewide offices are sent an invitation by email to participate in our survey. In collecting contact information for candidates, ATPE relies on information provided by state and county political parties, news reports, internet search engines, the Texas Secretary of State's office, private data vendors, and the candidates themselves.

The candidate survey is an online form maintained on a private webpage. Each candidate is provided a link to the survey webpage. For identity verification, ATPE also supplies each candidate with a unique security code that is used to log in to and answer the survey. Candidates are informed that their survey responses will be included on an ATPE-sponsored website. ATPE also urges the candidates to keep a copy of the survey questions and their responses for their own records.

ATPE's candidate survey consists of open-ended questions and allows for candidates to submit additional comments at the end of the survey. ATPE does not edit the candidates' survey responses. The survey responses shown on our candidate detail pages represent the actual answers supplied by candidates and may not reflect the views of ATPE or our members. The display of candidate-provided survey responses/comments and links to candidate websites or social media profiles on Teach the Vote does not constitute or reflect an endorsement by ATPE or statement of support for the candidate.

For legislative voting records, ATPE identifies key votes that were taken and recorded on education-related legislation that was of high importance to our membership. The individual legislators' record votes are verified by ATPE staff members using public records supplied by the Texas Legislature, as well as data obtained through private vendors.

Additional candidate information found on this site is compiled from a variety of sources, including current and past ATPE candidate surveys, candidate interviews, ethics reports, official voting records, the candidates' own campaign literature and advertisements, media reports, and websites where applicable. Photos displayed on the candidates' profiles are either provided by the candidates or sourced from ATPE file photography (photos obtained through past surveys, events, etc.). ATPE expects and understands that the candidate owns the rights to any submitted photos. ATPE reserves the right to reject a photo submission based on quality or content or edit photos to meet the parameters of the Teach the Vote website.

Any questions about Teach the Vote or its website content should be directed to ATPE Governmental Relations or (800) 777-2873.