The executive director of a nonprofit that provides mentoring to high school students pursuing a college education has announced he is running as a Democrat for District 2 of the State Board of Education.
In a campaign announcement, Thomas Ray Garcia says his campaign will stand for students on all post-graduate pathways, including college, the workforce and the military.
“Our campaign will stand for parents who want their children to receive a high-quality education,” he said in the announcement. “Our campaign will stand for teachers and staff who work hard to uplift society by educating our youth.”
Garcia is the executive director of the College Scholarship Leadership Access Program and says he is an educator, entrepreneur, writer and scholar.
“I was born in McAllen and I grew up in Pharr, Texas in a single-parent household. Through many financial hardships, my mother worked hard to provide for me,” he said. “No matter how poor we were, my mother always instilled in me the importance of education so I could be the first in my family to obtain a bachelor’s degree.”
He obtained his bachelor’s degree in 2016 from Princeton and his master’s degree from the University of California – Los Angeles in 2020 where he is currently a PhD candidate, according to the College Scholarship Leadership Access Program’s website.
Garcia says he has dedicated his life to enhancing educational opportunities for South Texas students since he was 19-years-old.
“From college access to critical writing to service learning, my lessons have reached thousands of students of all ages,” he said. “From college access to critical writing to service learning, my lessons have reached thousands of students of all ages. To me, the classroom is a place of opportunity.”
Garcia said he became inspired to become a writer in the seventh grade and that while a high school senior, he planned to host summer institutes on college admissions for students in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District.
“It was in my college writing seminar I determined to teach right out of college,” he said.
While teaching high school, he formulated a course based on those summer institutes and while in graduate school, he turned his writing and college admissions curricula into the nonprofit organization that he runs.
“It was in my countless Zoom classrooms I realized I needed to serve my community in a more impactful way,” he said.
If elected, Garcia said he would work to ensure classroom opportunities for all students while working to make sure no student is left behind or falls through the cracks.
“That means setting curriculum standards that encourage critical thinking rather than teaching to test. That means listening to educators on adopting instructional materials that help students learn the facts,” he said. “That means advocating for ethnic studies, dual language instruction and service-learning opportunities.
“That means engaging with parents meaningfully so they can make the best educational choices for their children and contribute to their school communities. That means ensuring more transparency on how tax dollars are spent and easier accessibility to this information.”
From Hidalgo to Matagorda counties, Garcia says his campaign will listen and learn to the constituents that District 2 on the State Board of Education represents.
“Our campaign will stand for all constituents who simply want a better future for Texas and who know that future begins in the classroom,” he said.
Ruben Cortez, a former Brownsville Independent School District trustee, has held the spot sought by Garcia since he was elected in 2012. Cortez, however, has announced he is running for Texas House District 37 where incumbent Rep. Alex Dominguez is instead running for the crowded Texas Senate District 27 Democratic primary.
Garcia, who has filed for election with the Secretary of State, doesn’t currently have a challenger in the Democratic primary who has filed.
If the primary goes uncontested, Garcia will face Corpus Christi Republican L.J. Francis in the general election.
Francis, an engineer, is the only Republican who has so far filed to run with the Secretary of State.
