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Pam Little, R-Fairview, announced her campaign for reelection to the State Board of Education late last week.
Little registered for her spot on the ballot in Austin earlier this week, she said in a post online.
I had a busy and productive day in Austin! I started the day by registering to officially be on the ballot for…
Posted by Pam Little on Tuesday, November 16, 2021
The State Board is an an elected, partisan body of 15 members that sets curriculum standards, creates graduation requirements and reviews textbooks and instructional materials. It is made up of nine Republicans and six Democrats from across the state who serve staggered four-year terms.
Little, 68, was elected in 2018 after narrowly winning her district with 49.5 percent of the vote. She owns a fencing business and has taught community college courses, according to the Texas Education Agency. She also sat on the Fairview Town Council from 2016 to 2018, and ran for the board of education in 2012, according to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News.
Prior to holding public office, Little worked in educational publishing at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt before retiring in 2008, per the TEA.
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Little represents district 12, which encompasses all of Collin County, as well as much of Dallas County.
Her district now looks different than it did when she was first elected.
Currently, many of her constituents live in suburban or urban areas.
The newly redrawn district boundaries now also include swaths of rural North and East Texas counties and shrank her constituency in Dallas County.
If reelected, Little will also represent constituents in Cooke, Grayson, Fannin, Lamar, Hunt, Delta, Hopkins, Red River and Bowie counties, as well as part of Denton County.
Little said she “hopes to earn their votes to continue to be the conservative fighter Texas families can depend on in Austin.”
She will continue to represent only Collin and Dallas counties until her current term ends.
The new boundaries don’t take effect until there’s an elected person in the new district 12 seat in early 2023.
The State Board of Education’s newly redrawn districts cement the power of Republican incumbents.
Critics say the redrawn State Board of Education maps do not reflect the major growth of the Hispanic community, which made up nearly half of the state’s population gain since 2020. People of color accounted for 95% of the state’s population boom over the last decade, with much of the growth concentrated in cities and suburban areas, Census data show.
When she was sworn into the board in 2019, Little was assigned to the committee on instruction, which deals with curriculum, instructional materials, testing, graduation requirements and special education programs.
In January this year, she was elected by other board members to serve as vice chair. Her role will run through the end of her current term in January 2023, according to the Texas Education Agency.
Texas’ state education board has been at the center of contentious debate in recent years for disagreements over curriculum standards. Some of the topics included controversial evolution teaching requirements and sex education policies.
The candidate filing period for the 2022 primary elections ends on Dec. 13, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Jan. 31 is the last day to register to vote. Early voting will take place from Feb. 14 to Feb. 25. Primary Election Day is March 1, with runoffs on May 24. Election Day is Nov. 8, 2022.