Texas’ blue wave didn’t just sweep across all eight statewide seats this midterm election. It also broke up the 11-4 Republican supermajority on the State Board of Education (SBOE), which one expert is calling “the most consequential race of this election.”
“These seats are going to dictate what future generations are going to learn in the classroom, which is going to set up the way that kids see themselves, and the way that they move in the world far beyond just the classroom or their ideology,” Rocío Fierro-Pérez, the political director at the Texas Freedom Network, told Courier Texas. “If we are teaching the truth, if we are setting up kids for success in the public education system, that’s going to better prepare them to be active citizens of their communities and in the state, and it’s going to go far beyond this generation.”
Fierro-Pérez said that with these election results, Texans sent a clear message to politicians and the public that they value public education, diversity, teachers, and teaching the truth over culture wars and extremism.
Earlier this year, the Republican-dominated SBOE made national news after its members passed a mandated reading list that makes Texas the first state in the nation to require the Bible be read in public school classrooms. The SBOE was also instrumental in passing Bluebonnet Learning in 2025, which are Bible-infused lesson plans, and overhauled social studies teaching standards over the summer with a “problematic” rewrite that teaches students about the “negative effects” of divorce and removes Black history from lesson plans.
During meetings in September, the board removed all neutral mentions of Islam in US History standards, and faced contentious testimony from hundreds of speakers who urged its members to create a balanced curriculum and reject Islamophobic rhetoric.
But Fierro-Pèrez said that this flip has been accumulating over the last decade, and that voters saw through distractions and culture wars and voted for real change instead.
“ If you look at the messaging that Republicans were centered on, they were talking about things that are not a real problem,” she said. “They were trying to continue to paint trans people as a boogeyman and attack things that are not actually going to help people at all, and I think the voters saw through that. With this new upcoming board, we can focus on ensuring that Texas kids get a quality education regardless of who they are or their family’s religious beliefs.”
With a new 8-7 Democratic majority on the board, Fierro-Pèrez said now the work begins, and that while it will take time to “reverse the amount of damage that’s been done,” she is hopeful the board can “reverse course” on the extremism that was previously implemented.
“ Now that we flipped it, we need to maintain it,” she said. “There is so much work to be done, and the SBOE is only the beginning. We need a Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner that is committed to academic integrity, we need to review religious freedom violations in the classroom and take a really hard look at discrimination inside our education policy.”
This will be the first time Democrats control the SBOE since 1994, and with a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the House, the board could have allies in the legislature for the first time in over 30 years.
Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who Fierro-Pèrez called a fierce public education champion, ran on “saving” public schools and firing TEA Commissioner Mike Morath on day one.
Hinojosa has condemned the increase in state takeovers seen under Morath, and while eliminating state takeovers entirely would require a change in Texas law, her appointment of new commissioner could immediately overhaul state-appointed leaders in taken-over districts across the state and return some local power back to communities.
She’s also promised to overhaul standardized testing in Texas schools, and reassess the state’s accountability rating system that grades school districts and determines whether they will be taken over by the state.
Hinojosa has also been a vocal opponent of private school vouchers—a program that was pushed through the legislature by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and under his leadership allocated $1 billion of taxpayer money to families to use on private school tuition and home school costs.
While eliminating it would require legislative action, Hinojosa has Democratic allies to help. Lieutenant Governor-elect Vikki Goodwin—who will preside over the Texas Senate starting next year—said she will work to repeal the program. Comptroller-elect Sarah Eckhardt ran on reforming the program, and will now oversee funds for voucher accounts and has the power to perform an audit.
Hinojosa also has the power to appoint a new State Board of Education chair from its elected members, who presides over meetings and guides the work of the 15-member body that represents Texas 5.5 million public school students.
“So what happens next? Continue to talk to your board members, whether that’s letters, showing up to meetings and speaking out,”” Fierro-Pèrez said.”Continue being engaged because we can’t simply flip the board, we have to maintain it.”
“Education is the bedrock,” she added. “It’s too important for us to not show up fully to meet the moment and continue to implement change.”
