By Grant Morrison | Staff Writer

Texas State Board of Education Republican, Democratic and Libertarian candidates are fighting for the upper hand in elections and Nov. 5 draws closer.

The Texas State Board of Education is made up of 15 single-member districts, five of which feature contested races. There will be multiple new faces on the board this year, as some members retired while others faced primary challengers as part of the Texas GOP’s ongoing internal conflict around education savings accounts, or school vouchers, a means by which families may use taxpayer funding to pay for private education. The State Board voted in Nov. 2022 to urge the Texas legislatures to reject voucher programs, but reconvened in February to remain neutral and punt the decision to lawmakers. Gov. Greg Abbott has made the issue a priority in the upcoming legislative session.

District 10 spans much of central Texas, bending around Austin and Waco, stretching from Henderson County southeast of Dallas down to Brazos County, then stretches around the Austin metro through Williamson County down to Comal County north of San Antonio.

The Republican candidate is incumbent Tom Maynard, who was first elected in 2012 and led the Board’s February reversal from their anti-voucher position. He was a former school board trustee in Williamson County, and the first slide on his website declares that “woke ideologies have no place in Texas education.”

The Democratic candidate is Dr. Raquel Saenz Ortiz, an assistant professor of education at Southwestern University in Georgetown. Her platform highlights a more equitable education system and ensures that educators have a voice in decisions that impact their classroom. She also bemoans the number of teachers leaving the profession at higher rates than ever before due to the politicization of schooling.