Voters to decide Fort Worth’s new State Board of Education members

Two new faces will represent Fort Worth on the State Board of Education.

Republican Brandon Hall and Democrat Rayna Glasser are jockeying for the District 11 seat, which covers most of Tarrant County, parts of Johnson and Dallas counties and all of Parker, Hood and Somervell counties. The winner will succeed Republican Pat Hardy, a 22-year incumbent who was defeated in the GOP primary, and serve until 2028.

Democrat Tiffany Clark, a former DeSoto ISD school board member and longtime school counselor, is unopposed in her bid for the District 13 seat, representing the remainder of Tarrant County and parts of Dallas County. She will succeed Democrat Aicha Davis, who resigned in August to seek a seat in the Texas House, and serve until 2026.

The 15-member State Board of Education’s responsibilities include setting curriculum standards, reviewing and adopting instructional materials, establishing graduation requirements and overseeing the Texas Permanent School Fund.

Glasser is an instructional coach in Crowley ISD in Tarrant County, while Hall is a pastor at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Springtown in Parker County.

Hall wants to increase school choice and put parents back in charge of their children’s education, he previously told the Report.

“I’m running to stand up for the interests of parents, to be a solid, conservative fighter and to be somebody who will make the right decision every time when it comes to getting indoctrination, CRT (critical race theory) and obscene materials out of our schools,” Hall said in February.

Glasser has spent nearly 20 years in schools as an educator and seen firsthand the impact of the state’s education system, she said.

“Just seeing shifts in education over the last 18 years, I see a system that’s broken and things that can be fixed and improved upon,” Glasser said.

Hall wants the state to return to “the fundamentals of education,” he said. 

Glasser wants to reform graduation requirements to be less dependent on the state’s five end-of-course exams, so students have multiple pathways for a high school diploma, she said.

The candidates disagree over the role of religion in public schools. In November, the State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on instructional materials that include a proposed elementary reading curriculum that incorporates religious texts.

Hall has encouraged people to tell their State Board of Education members to support the proposal, while Glasser is concerned about the state opening itself to lawsuits over religion.

In 2025, the State Board of Education is expected to review new social studies standards.

Glasser wants history taught the way it happened, she said.

“We have to teach our kids historically accurate facts as they were, because we don’t want to repeat those things,” Glasser said.

History needs to be taught objectively, Hall said.

“I think it’s just having somebody who’s going to go through those things with a fine-tooth comb and make sure that our students are protected,” he said.

The 2024 election is the first under a redrawn map that expanded District 11 beyond Tarrant and Parker counties into more rural areas southwest of Fort Worth, as well as into Dallas County.

Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.