Will Texas State Board of Education bend farther to the right? Here are 3 races to watch.

Three Republican members of the State Board of Education are facing well-funded primary election challenges by opponents with ultraconservative ideologies, setting the stage for a possible tilt farther to the right for the 15-member state panel that sets education standards.

The outcome of the March 5 primary races — and ultimately the general election in November — could place a hard-line conservative majority on the Republican-dominated board, which sets curriculum for schools in Texas.

Of the seven state education board offices up for grabs, three have contested Republican primary races. The winners of these primaries will face the Democratic candidate in November.

In District 10, which encompasses parts of the Hill Country, Williamson County and areas south of Dallas, incumbent Tom Maynard is being challenged by Round Rock school board member Mary Bone and Daniel “DC” Caldwell, who is running in both the Republican and Democratic primaries.

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In District 11, a small region in the Fort Worth area, 20-year board veteran and former teacher Pat Hardy is being challenged by Brandon Hall, who has worked in ministry services.

In the North Texas-based District 12, incumbent and former textbook publisher Pam Little faces three Republican challengers: Chad Green, a McKinney school board member; Jamie Kohlmann, a real estate agent and former education analyst at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation; and Matt Rostami, an eye doctor.

Aside from its primary responsibilities of setting curriculum standards and reviewing and adopting instructional materials, the state board approves charter schools, oversees the Texas Permanent School Fund, sets graduation requirements and reviews the rules to certify educators.

In the coming years, the board is expected to roll out a new list of approved instructional materials and will revise the social studies and math standards, called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Any major changes in the makeup of the state board would probably have an effect on its curriculum decisions for all Texas students, said Jacob Kirksey, a Texas Tech University education professor.

The board next year will approve a new social studies curriculum — a process that in 2022 became so divisive over several issues, including adding information about the LGBTQ Pride movement and the history of racism in the U.S., that those decisions were punted to 2025.

“There’s going to be a lot of opinions about what goes into those based on the partisan leaning,” Kirksey said.

Though school districts in Texas have autonomy to use any textbooks to teach grade-level skills, a new state law that gives schools money to use state board-approved materials is likely to pressure districts to use those books, he said, adding that the board’s leaning could drive the agency's policies on the back end.

“They are also political pragmatists,” Kirksey said. “They're not going to waste time doing something that they know is not going to make it through the board.”

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Texas State Board of Education candidates

Maynard, Hardy and Little say they come to the board after serving for years and obtaining irreplaceable experience. The incumbents have campaigned on issues that are bread and butter to the state board, such as revising the teacher certification process and making changes to generate more money from the Permanent School Fund — a $52 billion, 160-year-old fund that helps finance public schools.

"I do think all three of us are very seasoned," Hardy said of the GOP incumbents. "We understand what's ahead of us, and we work very well together."

Among other issues, the board has lately focused on approving high quality instructional materials, an important step to improving student success, Little said.

Maynard, who has served on the board since 2012, said that "conservative virtue signaling" doesn't move work forward for students.

“I have solved a lot of things and advocated for a lot of stakeholders in the process by just picking up the phone and having that conversation,” Maynard said.

In all three races, the incumbents’ opponents have campaigned on issues that Gov. Greg Abbott has spent the past year touring the state to champion: more education options for students, such as charter schools or school choice, a program that uses public money to help pay for private schooling, which the governor has painted as parents’ rights; and eliminating liberal, "woke ideology" curriculum in classrooms.

Hall, who is running against Hardy, is decrying courses on social-emotional learning — which teaches students to be aware of and manage their emotions — and diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools. The state Legislature last year passed a law banning DEI offices and initiatives at public colleges and universities.

“It complicates education and creates more stress for teachers and students as well,” Hall said. “If we get those things out of our classroom it will just make it easier for us to return to the fundamentals of education.”

Rostami, one of Little’s opponents, has been campaigning on the idea of a pro-America curriculum, such as teaching more about the Declaration of Independence. Caldwell, who is running against Maynard, wants more focus in schools on practical post-school skills and parents' rights, he said.

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Bone, Green and Kohlmann did not return American-Statesman requests for comment.

The board has taken a further conservative bent in the past year after voters in 2022 elected Republicans LJ Francis from Corpus Christi and Julie Pickren from Pearland. Francis flipped a seat, increasing the GOP's dominance on the board to 10 members.

The District 1 seat up for grabs has no incumbent in the race and will be decided in November between Democrat Gustavo Reveles and Republican Michael Stevens.

In the District 3 and 4 races, incumbent Democrats Marisa B. Perez-Diaz and Staci Childs are running unopposed in the primary and general election.

In District 15, incumbent Republican Aaron Kinsey and Democrat Morgan Kirkpatrick are unopposed in the primary and will face off in the general election.

Early voting in the primary will end Friday. Election day is March 5.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 3 State Board of Education races to watch in Texas primary election