132
Texas Dems celebrate flipping State Board of Education, brace for recount (www.texastribune.org)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
4 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The race determining the balance of power on Texas' education board could go to a recount as fewer than 600 votes separate candidates.

Republicans’ unrestrained dominance over what Texas students learn in the classroom may likely end next year as five new Democrats appear to have won State Board of Education seats.

Democrat Dana Van de Walker leads Republican incumbent Audrey Young by fewer than 600 votes, with only 1% of the vote in the District 8 race unaccounted for, according to unofficial returns. If that holds, Texas Democrats would secure their first majority on the board since 1994.

No matter what happens in the final contest, GOP power on the board will not look like the majority that recently authored an Islamophobic rewrite of social studies lessons, greenlit mandatory Bible readings for all public school students and approved classroom instruction downplaying the horrors of American slavery.

Even if Republicans hold onto the majority — which is still far short of the current 11-4 makeup — Democrats gain significant say in decisions moving forward. In that scenario, eight Republicans would need to band together on every vote. That seems unlikely given that board member Pam Little, a Fairview Republican, is known to deviate from her colleagues when she disagrees with them.

all 4 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 21 points 1 day ago (1 child)

Fuck, this could be seismic. They better not screw up this chance. It's not going to fix the last fifty years of destruction the GOP has wrought. But it is their chance to really start and to show voters why they should keep putting them in office.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    I just went to look at Ted Cruz's YouTube channel to see what he had to say about the GOP moving forward (as I believe that he's considered the most-likely Republican 2028 presidential nominee not in the Trump cabinet, so I assume that he'd have to basically craft something to appeal to a coalition of potential Republican voters).

    He didn't have a lot of specifics, so that was a bust, but one thing that I saw was that he said that he was the only remaining Republican elected statewide official in Texas. I also saw some news outlets make the same statement. I don't think that that can be correct, though.

    I assume that the Republican officials on the Texas state board of ed are elected and statewide (unless Texas uses some weird split partially-elected partially-appointed system).

    I also dug up Texas's list of elected statewide officials, and it looks like there are a few elected Republican judges with terms that don't expire in 2026, like, uh...looks Scott Walker.

    Now, granted, these aren't very high-profile, but they are real.

    Not sure if both Cruz and news outlets made the same error or if I'm missing something.

    Also, the Texas webpage doesn't list the state board of ed positions as being statewide and elected.

    searches

    Oh, okay. Apparently the state board of ed doesn't have statewide positions, but rather districts that each represents.

    https://sboe.texas.gov/state-board-of-education/sboe-board-members/sboe-members

    There are 15 state Board of Education members who are elected by Texans to two or four year terms of office. Each member represents about 1.8 million Texans. The board members are listed by district below.

    I still don't know what's going on with the Republican judges, though.

    EDIT: Actually, OP's article briefly mentions a district belonging to a board of ed member, so if I'd have read it more carefully, I'd have caught that.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    are they going to "find the votes"?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •