Democrats Promised to Remake Texas Schools. Here Is What Hinojosa Can Change and What Still Needs the Senate
Vouchers, STAAR, takeovers and Morath's job: the Tribune maps what a Democratic governor can veto or appoint, and what still requires Republican Senate votes.
Texas Democrats promised a seismic shift in K-12 education after they swept statewide offices Tuesday. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, a former Austin ISD board president, ran on "saving" public schools. She pledged to fire Education Commissioner Mike Morath, stop state takeovers, roll back school vouchers and scrap STAAR-style tests. The Texas Tribune laid out what she can change with a pen and what still needs the Legislature.
Parents who want schools that teach children to read, write, know history and fear God should separate campaign vows from the law. Some levers are real. Others are stuck until bills pass a Republican Senate.
Vouchers: veto power, not a magic eraser
Last year's Legislature created a $1 billion education-savings-account program. Families with a child in private school began qualifying for about $10,500 a year. Homeschoolers can receive up to $2,000. Children with disabilities qualify for up to $30,000. Outgoing Comptroller Don Huffines wanted lawmakers to more than double that pot next session. Democrat Sarah Eckhardt beat him and has said she wants to audit the program.
Hinojosa cannot rewrite the voucher statute alone. She can veto new voucher bills and use the governor's line-item veto to strike education-savings-account funding from a budget. A veto override needs two-thirds of both the House and Senate. "Our public schools are barely hanging on," she said at a September news conference, according to the Tribune. "We cannot afford to take $4 billion to give to this unaccountable voucher scam, so I will block that."
Christians disagree in good faith about whether public money should follow a child to a private or home school. What should not be in dispute is honesty about the mechanism. Ending the program takes legislative votes or budget fights, not a Day One decree.
Morath, takeovers and the Senate confirmation trap
Hinojosa vowed to remove Morath on her first day. His four-year term expires in January, the same month she is sworn in. She must nominate a successor and send the name to the Senate. Confirmation needs two-thirds of senators present. Republicans still hold the chamber 19-12. If no nominee is confirmed during session, the seat stays vacant until she nominates again; during recess she can appoint someone who serves until the Senate returns.
State law, not Morath alone, drives takeovers. After a campus earns five consecutive academically unacceptable ratings, the commissioner must take over the district or close the school. Texas has seven districts, including Fort Worth and Houston, where Morath has replaced superintendents and appointed managers since 2023. Ending takeovers entirely requires changing that statute. A new commissioner could replace appointed managers and set the date when elected trustees begin rotating back onto the board.
Dock Line has already tracked how District 8 decided State Board of Education control and how Democrats flipped the House. Both matter for what gets taught and what bills reach the governor's desk.
STAAR and the State Board of Education
Hinojosa pledged to eliminate STAAR and "tests like it." In 2025 lawmakers voted to replace STAAR with three shorter exams, called the Student Success Tool, starting next school year. She opposes that tool too, but changing it needs the Legislature. Federal law under the Every Student Succeeds Act still requires annual reading and math tests in grades 3-8 and once in high school. No Texas governor can scrap federally required testing by executive order.
The 15-member State Board of Education is now 8-7 Democratic after Dana Van De Walker led the final unofficial Texas SOS count in District 8 by 564 votes with 100% of precincts reporting. At least four new Democrats won seats. Before the election Republicans held an 11-4 supermajority and used it to greenlight mandatory Bible readings in reading lessons and other contested curriculum moves. Once in office, Hinojosa may appoint a new board chair from among elected members, subject to Senate approval. The current chair is Republican Aaron Kinsey.
What faithful Texans should watch
A Democratic attorney general will no longer threaten schools the way Ken Paxton's office often did over Ten Commandments posters and campus walkouts. That is a real enforcement shift. Curriculum, testing and takeover statutes are slower. Parents should read bills, not headlines. Ask whether a proposal helps children learn truth and character, or merely swaps one political fashion for another. Proverbs warns that where there is no guidance a people falls. Texas schools need guidance rooted in reality, not victory laps.
Hero photo: Carver Elementary School in Karnack, Texas. File photo. Democrats pledged major K-12 changes after Tuesday's sweep. Photo: Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
