Four Republicans prevailed in five contested Texas State Board of Education races Tuesday night, solidifying a GOP majority on the board responsible for determining what the state’s 5.5 million public school children learn in the classroom.

Factoring in the election results, the board now comprises 10 Republicans and five Democrats. Democrats regained a seat after it was vacated by Aicha Davis, who stepped down to run for the Texas House.

Republican incumbents Tom Maynard (District 10), Pam Little (District 12) and Aaron Kinsey (District 15) defeated their Democratic challengers, while Republican Brandon Hall, who ousted longtime GOP incumbent Patricia “Pat” Hardy (District 11) in the March primary, was also victorious.

In the race for the District 1 seat currently held by El Paso Democrat Melissa Ortega, who decided not to seek another term, Democrat Gustavo Reveles defeated Republican challenger Michael “Travis” Stevens.

Democrats Marisa Perez-Diaz (District 3) and Staci Childs (District 4), both of whom ran uncontested, held onto their seats. Tiffany Clark, a Democrat running to fill the District 13 seat vacated by Davis, also won after running unchallenged.

The 15 members on the board play an extraordinary role in determining what students learn in the classroom and what’s required for kids to graduate, as well as in overseeing to support Texas public schools.

The stakes of were especially high this year, since the group’s responsibilities next year could include revising Texas’ social studies curriculum. Some conservatives on the Republican-dominated board campaigned on the idea that public schools are harming children with how they teach America’s history of racism and its diversity.

The board in recent months has fielded complaints about a Texas Education Agency-proposed curriculum that, if approved later this month, would insert into elementary school reading and language arts lessons. The group has on a long-awaited Native Studies course, covering the culture and history of tribes and nations across Texas and the U.S. And in recent years, the board has over their messaging on climate change and its to school vouchers, a program that would set aside public tax dollars for parents to pay their children’s private school tuition.

Of the eight races this year, here are the results of the five contested ones.

District 1

Democrat Gustavo Reveles defeated Republican Michael “Travis” Stevens in , which encompasses El Paso County and part of Bexar County.

Reveles, who currently serves as communications director for the Canutillo school district outside of El Paso, said he ran to ensure that Texas’ border community continues to have a presence at the state level. While acknowledging that he has not worked as a teacher or an educator, Reveles said the board needs people who respect educators as leaders and experts in the field. Top of mind for Reveles is helping ensure that students of all backgrounds feel represented in curricula. He also would like to see a more rigorous approval process of , which are publicly funded but privately managed.

District 10

In , which includes Bell County and part of Williamson County, Republican defeated Democrat Raquel Sáenz Ortiz.

Maynard, of Florence, has served on the board for 11 years. He is currently the chair of the board’s Committee on School Finance and helps oversee the known as the Permanent School Fund. With more than 30 years in education, Maynard spent more than a dozen of them as an agricultural science teacher. He also worked as of the Texas FFA Association. Maynard’s priorities include improving the quality of instructional materials, creating and implementing a library book review process and completing revisions to the social studies and mathematics standards as some of his top priorities. He also has said he opposes so-called “woke ideologies” in public education, , and has vowed to “continue to fight to ensure students are not subject to radical and inappropriate content in Texas classrooms.”

District 11

In , which includes Parker County and part of Tarrant County, Republican Brandon Hall defeated Democrat Rayna Glasser and Green Party candidate Hunter Crow.

Hall is a youth pastor who has described Texas as having “a broken public education system” where kids “face an onslaught against their innocence” — particularly with how America’s history of racism is taught in classrooms and what he has called “obscene library books” and a “sexualized agenda.” Hall his commitment “to making quality, conservative education a reality for all students” and to establish charter schools more easily. He also wants parents to “play a central role in shaping the educational trajectory of their children.”

District 12

In , which includes Collin County, Republican Pam Little defeated Democrat George King.

Little, of Fairview, has served on the board since 2019 and is currently the group’s vice chair. A co-owner of a fence company, she has taught courses in small business management in community college, according to her . Little has voted against presenting a “biased view” of the fossil fuel industry and social studies standards that “water down our history,” according to her . She listed as her accomplishments while on the board, among other things, implementing phonics-based curriculum standards, approving personal financial literacy education and updating the Texas Dyslexia Handbook.

District 15

In , which includes Ector and Lubbock counties, Republican Aaron Kinsey defeated Democrat Morgan Kirkpatrick and Libertarian Jack Westbrook.

Kinsey, of Midland, was elected to the board in 2022 and appointed chair by Gov. last December. Kinsey is a former Air Force pilot who now oversees an aviation oil field services company in Midland, according to . At the Texas Republican Party Convention this year, Kinsey acknowledged he did not know much about the State Board of Education prior to running but that he did “understand the greatness of Texas” and that his family’s values were not being represented in public schools. Among Kinsey’s top priorities, he said at the convention, is for schools to teach Texas children “how to think and not to hate themselves.” He also advocated for curricula that embrace “capitalism and self-reliance as nobel quests.” Kinsey proclaimed at the end of his speech: “You have a chairman who will fight for these three-letter words: G-O–D, G-O-P, and U-S-A.”

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

OKLAHOMA CITY — A group of Oklahoma parents, students, teachers and faith leaders have asked the state Supreme Court to block a and keep a copy of it in classrooms.

Thirty-two plaintiffs filed on Thursday, contending the mandate violates the Oklahoma Constitution’s ban of state-established religion. They asked the justices to deem the requirements unenforceable and stop the use of taxpayer funds to buy Bibles.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education is to place in public school classrooms. State Superintendent Ryan Walters ordered public schools to incorporate more instruction on the Bible, particularly in fifth through 12th grade history courses.

Walters has said his aim is for schools to teach the historical and literary importance of the Bible, not to proselytize.

“It is not possible for our students to understand American history and culture without understanding the Biblical principles from which they came, so I am proud to bring back the Bible to every classroom in Oklahoma,” Walters said in a statement Thursday.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys contend Walters is wrongfully prioritizing his own Christian faith over other beliefs.

Several school districts have said they have no plans to add more instruction on the Bible other than what the Oklahoma Academic Standards already require. The state standards don’t mention the Bible by name, but they mandate districts to teach about major world religions and the role of religion in the founding of American colonies.

Walters, the Oklahoma State Board of Education and officials from the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, which oversees procurement for the state government, are listed as defendants in the lawsuit.

All 32 plaintiffs are Oklahoma residents of various faiths or no religion. They each objected to the state using their tax dollars to purchase Bibles.

They contend the Education Department failed to follow state requirements for purchasing and rulemaking when implementing the Bible order. Neither the agency nor the state Legislature have changed the state academic standards to justify it, the plaintiffs said.

Most said they have children attending public schools and feared school-based Bible instruction would interfere with the religious or moral teachings they apply at home.

One family reported their child had to take a quiz at a public school about God and Biblical lessons, which they said made the non-religious student “feel marginalized and unwelcome at school.”

The Rev. Mitch Randall, a Baptist pastor from Cleveland County, urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Bible mandate and uphold the separation of church and state — a legal concept Walters has called a myth.

“As a Christian, I’m appalled by the use of the Bible — a sacred text — for Superintendent Walters’ political grandstanding,” Randall said in a statement.

Oklahoma City pastor the Rev. Lori Walke also is a plaintiff. Walke, of Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ, said the state violates religious freedoms when requiring schools to teach one particular religious text.

“The government has no business weighing in on such theological decisions,” Walke said in a statement.

Attorneys from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice are representing the plaintiffs.

Walke and most of the legal organizations involved in the case have sued the state of Oklahoma before on religious liberty grounds. They filed a lawsuit last year hoping to block the opening of the nation’s first Catholic charter school in Oklahoma.

The after Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued against the concept of a publicly funded religious school.

ACLU of Oklahoma executive director Tamya Cox-Touré said church-state separation is a “bedrock” of the nation’s founding principles.

“All families and students should feel welcome in our public schools and we must protect the individual right of students and families to choose their own faith or no faith at all,” Cox-Touré said in an announcement of Thursday’s court challenge.

Walters referred to the legal organizations involved in the case as “out-of-state, radical leftists who hate the principles our nation was founded upon.”

“I will never back down to the woke mob, no matter what tactic they use to try to intimidate Oklahomans,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on and .

TOPEKA — A Kansas elementary school principal who invited an evangelical Christian missionary to pass out Bibles to students during their recess in May violated the First Amendment, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas warned Monday in a letter to the district.

Katie Struebing, the principal of East Elementary School in the roughly 2,000-person city of Belleville, invited a member of the evangelical Christian organization Gideons International, Ben Dreesen, to hand out Bibles to students during recess on May 7, wrote Monica Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, in the Monday letter. Gideons International is often credited with the introduction of Bibles to American hotel rooms.

Ahead of Dreesen’s visit, Struebing told staff that she would visit classrooms at the roughly 250-student school to inform students of “the nice man” handing out Bibles, according to . A student’s parents informed the ACLU about Dreesen’s visit.

Bennett wrote that Struebing allowed Dreesen on school grounds during school hours, accompanied him while he passed out Bibles to students and involved fellow school district staff in the matter. The principal lent her “credibility and authority” to Dreesen, “in effect placing a stamp of approval on his message and subjecting students to a religiously coercive atmosphere,” Bennett wrote.

Plus, the principal violated the Republic County school district’s own policy, which states that district employees aren’t allowed to use classrooms to “promote or convey” religious viewpoints, Bennett wrote.

The goal of the letter was “to educate and remind the principal and the school district what’s required with respect to separation of church and state,” Bennett told Kansas Reflector.

The First Amendment and U.S. court decisions require neutrality from government institutions when it comes to establishing or favoring a religion or nonreligion.

Struebing declined to comment, directing the Reflector’s inquiry to the school district superintendent, Tami Knedler, who did not respond.

This is at least the second incident in Kansas this year involving Bible distribution to students in public schools. In April, Butler County school district employees informed parents they intended to invite Gideon missionaries to hand out Bibles to Bluestem Elementary School students, according to the letter. District officials gave parents the option of excusing their children from the visit if they provided signed permission slips.

“After receiving criticism, including from Christian parents, invoking the First Amendment separation of church and state clause, the district walked back the decision,” Bennett wrote.

The public is aware of the law when it comes to religion in public schools, so school officials ought to be aware of the law as well, Bennett told the Reflector. In the letter, she referenced a and a that indicated the majority of Americans do not believe public schools should be influencing religious beliefs.

“It’s important to point out that our laws recognize the rights of individuals to worship, or not worship, according to their own conscience, and they have the right to pass on whatever their beliefs are onto their children,” Bennett said.

School districts should respect that, she said.

“The ACLU of Kansas strongly discourages you from welcoming missionaries on school grounds to distribute Bibles in the future,” the letter said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on and .