Thank you. Hi, this is Dr. Sessa Levert with another episode of the Way to College podcast. And, you know, it's not often that I have guests back on the podcast, but whenever I find that my guests have pivoted into maybe a new field, new career, or have taken on a particular cause, I love to check back in and understand the work that they're doing or where that change or the decision to make that change came about. And so I've invited a previous guest, Thomas Ray Garcia, to join us again because Thomas has decided to throw his hat into the political arena. And so I wanted to give Thomas some space to talk about this particular race. what is the position that he's vying for. But then to tell us about sort of how he came to that decision to decide I'm going to do this because if anybody, if you know anything about politics, running a campaign is expensive. It's time consuming. And Thomas, I know, is someone that thinks very carefully about where he puts his energy and his time. And if we learned anything from his first interview, is that he cares very deeply about particular issues. And so let's, you know, hopefully today we can understand how all of these things, what role did they play in helping him make his decision? So Thomas, tell us about this position. Tell us about what it is that you're running for. Thank you for having me on again, Jay. It's a real pleasure to be here and to talk to you again. I'm running for Texas State Board of Education. This is a 15-member body that determines what teachers teach and what students learn in public school classrooms in Texas. They review and adopt the instructional materials and textbooks that school districts can then approve for use. They set graduation requirements. They oversee the permanent school fund. They approve or reject new charter school applications and so many other duties as they relate to the quality of public schools. and I've believed for a long time that we need educators. We need people who have been in the arena, who understand the system representing us at the Texas State Board of Education. So in many ways, I feel like this is aligned with the work I've done over the past 13 years. It started with founding a college access program as a volunteer-led summer institute that grew into a small business that started helping many different types of students across the Rio Grande Valley to and through college. Then it was working as a high school teacher in the system and realizing the gaps that students were falling into and how we can improve that system for all students. And now as a community college professor at South Texas College, I teach both adult learners and dual enrollment students. So I'm both in and out of the system depending on the day. And I've seen how our public schools need fighters. They need people who understand the real challenges, not the made up challenges. They need people who understand the lived experiences of our students who can deliver real results. So I first ran for this position in 2022 in a five-way Democratic primary. I wasn't successful, but I learned a lot. I still believe that at the state level, we're prioritizing the wrong things. We're not putting students first. We're putting politics first. And I also believe we simply need to activate people at all levels, whether you're running for school board or state board of education or Congress or whatever level it might be, 2026 is the year I think we need to activate people to get more involved. So running for state board of education was my way of doing that. I am now the Democratic nominee, whereas last time I had a very competitive primary, this time I'm running unopposed. So in January 2026, I'm basically building the foundation that will prepare me for the general election in November 2026. Thomas, thank you for walking us through that and talking, particularly talking about the role, because I think, because even myself, right, I'm a longtime educator. I served on the school on a local school board. But as I saw your signs go up and even going back to the 2022 election, you know, asking questions, I had questions myself about, well, how much power does the State Board of Education have? What do they do? So I took the time to educate myself. But I imagine a lot of folks, a lot of folks don't understand the role of the State Board of Education. And so I appreciate you taking the time to talk about what you do, what they do, you know, as in that position. And Thomas, you know, you ran, you know, in 2022 unsuccessfully, but as you said, you learned a lot. What do you think were some of the lessons that you learned during that first campaign? We learned to meet the voters where they're at. In the education realm, we use terms like teaks, like curriculum, and so many technical terms that I think we need to open up and we need to expand the tent so more people can understand what's really going on in our public schools. And it starts with the language we use. If people start to hear technical jargon, they shut off. And that also allows other folks who want to enact a certain agenda to twist and turn things to make sure that people think that imaginary things are happening in public schools or minute niche issues are actually happening on a wide scale issue. And we saw that with issues like book bannings with focusing on culture war issues. Whereas coming out of the pandemic, I saw real issues with our students' mental health. I saw real issues with the learning loss. I saw real issues with how are we going to reimagine public education after this disastrous event? And I think what we need to do is reach people where they're at and learn what the issues are at the kitchen table, at their doorsteps, out in the community. And as I've been doing that over the past almost a year now since I've started this campaign, I've realized that everybody has a unique challenge going on at their local school but there a lot of patterns And if you simply listen and you learn from them you start to shape your own platform around the real needs of what happening in public schools So I'm proud to have talked to parents, to current students, former students, people who might not have children, but they have a vested interest in the success of their local schools. And it's amazing to see how much you can learn if you simply put your guard down, you absorb what people are telling you, and then you're willing to shift and pivot and you're willing to focus on other issues that you thought maybe weren't the issues you should be talking about or starting off with. But I've definitely seen that with issues of school safety, focusing on literacy and focusing on the foundational skills. So although my work is primarily focused in post-secondary and that gap between high school and college, I've come a long way in understanding all the way toward pre-kindergarten, making sure we get the basics right and making sure students have high quality instructional materials and high quality education to ensure when they get to the post-secondary, that foundation is there. So no matter what their pathway is after high school, they can read successfully, they can write successfully, they can do math effectively. So I've done a lot of learning myself in the past year. And it's a true pleasure because I've always considered myself a lifelong learner. That's part of the reason I love being an educator. But now the education I do is just slightly different. It's outside the classroom. I love that. I love that. And Thomas, I think, you know, you, there were a couple of points that, that really piqued my interest. The first was, you know, talking about what's really happening in classrooms, because, you know, I think if you, if you're just watching, right, social media, television, and I think you, you get a very narrow view of what's happening in schools. and so I think it's important that people understand right I think even when I ran for school board and I got into that position I saw I saw one thing and and I considered myself pretty well informed because I was helping students I was going into classrooms as you as you were or as you've done but then I had a spouse who was an educator but even then once I stepped into that position, I was like, wow, there's so much to learn, but also there is so much going on that people don't understand. Just the day-to-day, what are the real things that go on in a school or that impact learning, you know, talking about resources, talking about foundational skills. And so I appreciate you talking about that. And I think that's important. The other thing that really piqued my interest that you said was meeting voters, meeting your constituents where they're at. And, you know, I follow you on social media. And so I see, you know, posts of you putting gas and you're in this community, you're in that community. For our listeners and viewers out there, the area that you would represent is how large? it's 14 counties it covers 90 of hidoggle county east of the city of palmview and it covers all of cameron and willisie counties then it covers the coastal bend all the way up to matagord of the county so almost 2 million people 14 counties uh and a lot of miles and so getting out there getting out there because i think that is incredibly important um getting out there and talking to the people. What have you learned from that experience? I've learned that these issues affecting public schools can be very local and very unique, but there's also patterns and there are systemic fixes we can enact at the state level to make some of these occurrences less frequent. And school districts, no matter what their size, small, big, rural, urban, feel like they have a voice or an entity to turn to. And in my view, that's what the State Board of Education should be. There are schools that say, well, we know somebody at the Texas Education Agency, but yet this issue still happens, or we don't get enough attention from the state, or we don't know who to turn to when this issue happens, or we want to go advocate at the Texas legislature, but we don't know who to turn to to build that capacity and organize. And outside of my duties on the board itself, I hope to accomplish those things. I hope to be visible and present and simply showing up on the campaign trail to a small school district and learning what life is like in that small town opens up a lot of people. They start to share their struggles, their concerns, their worries, things that I wouldn't have known unless I showed up in the first place. So I intend on leading the same way I'm campaigning, showing up, making sure people understand they can reach me, that we can get stuff done. If I can't accomplish the goal on the State Board of Education, I can put them in contact with somebody who can. And it's going to be a real collaborative process. I think of myself as a capacity builder where the legislator in the area might not be able to do the same things I do, or I might put more focus on public schools and they might have a much wider constituency. But in tandem, we can work on issues. I can be a sounding board. I can be an advocate. I could collect data. And I hope I could push specific education issues at the Texas legislature as well as getting stuff done on the ground. So that's what I'm learning as I meet new people when I learn the different communities. Every county is like its own universe. And it can be very refreshing to pop the Hidalgo County bubble and go out and meet people where they're at. It's amazing because you learn that public schools are so unique, but also the patterns, the problems, systemic underfunding, the lack of attention from the state in a productive way, not understanding who to go to if a certain issue is going on at the Texas Education Agency, and many other issues I could talk about are pretty reoccurring. And so what I've learned is, well, they simply need somebody to show up and show leadership, and I hope to be that person. Wow. Well, I love everything that you've said, Thomas, and I think particularly talking about being a capacity builder or talking about collaborating, because I think all too often, you'll see folks running, you'll see candidates running and talking about all of the things that they're going to do without, I think, maybe overstating their real power. And they're going to create all of this change, but not acknowledging that, well, they can't do it alone. They've got to collaborate. There are systems in place that may help or hinder that, right? So I appreciate you being candid and talking about that and being in, and sort of how you see a role. But I think more importantly, just saying that just as you've been visible during this campaign that you intend to continue to be visible should you be elected Um so So thank you Thank you for that You know Thomas you get out and I can imagine right the number of people that you spoken to. Is there, have you come across a common concern or maybe frequently asked questions from constituents. An interesting topic that is coming up often is related to attention. So in many different ways, parents are concerned about their kids and their relationship to technology and what technology is doing to their brains. So screen time is one thing, making sure young people are not always addicted to their smartphones or tablets and scrolling on websites and social media. But what parents are articulating to me is what can we do as a result of young people growing up with this technology and interacting with it to an extent in the classroom and the impact it's having on their socialization skills, on their focus skills. So they can't read text as long as they used to read them for their writing capabilities, including the quality of their handwriting and all these myriad topics that relate to the attention economy. And this was an issue that I brought into the campaign, but I understood I wouldn't have direct impact on it as a state board of education member. It would be something I would advocate to the legislature about modifications to our relationship to technology and technology in the classroom and overall relationship to big tech. But I feel now a sense of urgency to do things on the ground. So I'm a program guy. C-SLAP is a program focused on college readiness, Beyond Borders Books, publishes books, it does literacy events. I care about getting stuff done now and scaling. So I'm planning some workshops and some initiatives that focus on empowering parents with tools and resources to develop a healthier relationship with technology, especially social media at home, and how these skills can be applied in the classroom. so students all day, whether they're at school or at home, can have a better relationship to their technology and they can make sure this relationship doesn't serve as a detriment to all these other aspects of their day-to-day lives, especially at these developmental stages of socialization, of reading. Outside of schooling, I see this as a huge issue. People my age struggle to pay attention. People my age are addicted to social media. People my age are going down rabbit holes on algorithms and finding misinformation and disinformation on the internet. And it's a serious problem that we need to face both at the federal level and at state levels. And in my role, I would come at it from the education world and show, here's what's happening to our kids. I mean, if we care about kids, we need to do something about this now. We can come at it from the cyber bullying aspect. We can come at it from the attention economy aspect. Whatever gateway we enter this conversation from, I'm hearing it a lot from parents and from young people who are even self-aware that we need to do something about tech and social media. So this is an issue I'm studying more about people like Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, and many other related books on attention like The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. I've been reading and researching, and it's a fascinating conversation to see what we can do at the state level. you know um one thank you for that i think um absolutely i i uh i agree i think um you know as i mentioned earlier my spouse is an educator so you know cell phones use right is now prohibited in schools and and so my my wife tells me that she's seen a tremendous impact and positive impact And she says, for the most part, students haven't asked for it. And so that it has helped with attention. So I'm eager to see, to learn more about, you know, maybe what you might be able to do, but also just about these workshops for parents. Because I know, at least speaking, I still teach part-time at the university. I still see my students are incredibly dependent, you know, on their phone and maybe even addicted. you walk into class early and everybody's on their phone and and you know i'll often comment if i see a group of five or six students and nobody's talking to each other you know they might be sitting at close proximity but everybody is looking at their phone and um so so i appreciate this i'm eager to see what you what you do and and and uh you know uh what these what comes about from these workshops. Thomas, you, you know, what factors, what do you think maybe, because I think, as I mentioned earlier, right, if anybody's run a campaign, familiar with politics, campaigns are expensive, campaigns are time consuming. You went through the cycle in 22. Why do it again? Why, you know, why do this again? Well, after the presidential inauguration in 2025, I felt a great need to do more. I saw a lot of systemic issues directly impacted students I worked with, from scaling up ICE enforcement in communities that felt detrimentally impacted by this, and students were writing their narrative essays about not coming to class or feeling in fear of them or their families' livelihoods, or students I was working with trying to apply to the financial aid form, the FAFSA, on the day that the Department of Education was supposed to be shuttered according to an executive order. There was just such chaos, and they were unable to complete the form because it was just down for a day or two. So those two examples are two extremes of how governmental action at the federal level impact people I directly work with. And I felt that sense of futility I felt during the pandemic that I can work with one family, one student at a time, but I don't feel like that's enough to meet the moment. And I feel like I could do more. So State Board of Education is not as powerful as Senate or Congress. It's not as well known as state Senate or State House. But it's a niche position that I know I'm qualified for. and it's what I know I can do well. And I think it's a position that I can reimagine to do things that we haven't seen it do before, including the workshops I just talked about, including showing up in places to simply listen and learn and be a sounding board and an advocate and so many other ideas I have. So ever since I started building up the foundation of this campaign I feel like I been doing my part So when I turn on the news and I see such devastation when I see such regressiveness when I see such divisiveness I feel like this campaign is my answer to that And I feel like when we talk about public schools to people, no matter who they are, I feel like they have something to say. And I feel like it gives them a sense of agency that they can talk about an education position that isn't just their local school board, but impacts millions of students, not just in Texas, but the textbook adoption process in our state influences students across the country. States buy Texas textbooks since our textbook market is so big. So what happens at the Texas State Board of Education influences students all around the country. So when I thought about that scale, I decided to jump back in the fight only after contacting folks who had run for this position before or who had served in this position before and asking them, are you going to run? Because if you're going to run, I can justify in my mind, they might have a better shot at this. They should do it. And that's their contribution. I'll look for my contribution elsewhere. But it whittled down to me. And as I continue campaigning throughout 2025 and building a base of support, We showed that there was real momentum behind the vision and the mission that we were aiming for. And there's still a lot of work to be done. It's a nearly two million person district. And I feel like starting early was key. Personally, it's given me a sense of agency that I could do something no matter what the flavor of the week is on the news or what the topics might be. The education issues, I feel like, are the long game. You need to improve public schools because if you lose public schools, you lose our future. So there's immediate issues that we need to fix that are happening at the federal and to an extent, the state level. But I feel like the work I'm doing is the foundation building. And to me, if I can focus on that and I can see the fruits of my labor a decade, 20 years from now, then I feel like I'm doing my part effectively. donos thank you um it it just i mean your your response i think um is indicative of of you and your process and your commitment to whatever it is that you're pursuing right to learn as much as you can to be as informed as possible and so you know as a former politician i appreciate that Because I think too often, you know, candidates go in, run for a position, not really understanding the position, not understanding the power, the expectations, the leadership that might be demanded of them within that position. And also just the information, right? Knowing what exactly it is that they do, what can they do, what can't they do. And so it sounds like for you, like this process wasn't just a matter of, hey, I see what's happening in my classroom. I see what's happening with my students. But it was about all of these different pieces and making sure, OK, does everything fit? I mean, it's, you know, talking to folks, are they going to run? OK, they're not going to run. And being very strategic about your own campaign. And also that it that it aligns, right? that the position I think aligns with your values and, and, and the thing, and, and with the things that you care about. So I appreciate that. And I appreciate your process with this, you know, Thomas, for our listeners and viewers out there, if they want to make a contribution, if they want to support your campaign, how can they do that? We can go to my website, thomasraygarciatx.com. and there's a link to our ActBlue. And I can also provide a direct link to that ActBlue. It's a website where Democratic candidates put up their donation info. And I think that is the best way to donate. People prefer checks. The PO Box is PO Box 334 in FAR, Texas, zip code 78577. And more than willing to be in direct contact with folks to share more information about how to donate. Great, great. I'll make sure that, you know, I mean, in addition to sharing this information, I'll make sure that we post the links on the show notes and share those when we post this episode, which I hope to post soon. Thomas, any other words that you'd like to leave our listeners or viewers with? My mom used to tell me education is your superpower. For so long, I focused on the power of equipping students with the information, resources, and mentorship they needed to be successful in college. After a while, I realized we need to expand the 10 and work with more students on more issues. And my solution was to run for the State Board of Education. But so many of us, even those who don't work in the education world, still have a part to play in opening up opportunities for students, whether it's simply mentoring some students at the local school or getting more involved in nonprofits that work in education, like a boys and girls club, for example. So I encourage listeners to get involved in their local community, tune into the school board and find out what they can do to support kids in their area. Because if we all do that, then our communities will come out stronger. Thank you, Thomas. And I couldn't agree more. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for, thank you for your commitment I think you know I think you and I share many similar passions and I think we're both committed to education and so thank you for your work I wish you the best on the campaign and and again good luck thanks Jay so this concludes another episode of the Way to College podcast thank you to my guest Thomas Ray Garcia thank you to all of our listeners and viewers out there. If you're interested in donating, supporting Thomas's campaign, we'll make sure to check the links in the show notes. And one last thought, if there are any other candidates for whatever position, if you're running for office and you'd like to use this space to share your story and then talk about your campaign, feel free to contact me. I'd love to hear your story. Thanks, and we'll see you again soon. Bye-bye. Thank you.
