More valuable insights from Franklin Strong.
GCISD Parents PAC has gotten the message: Book-banning and attacking students from marginalized groups won’t win school board elections in Texas.
Year after year after year after year, I’ve written recaps after school board elections in Texas. And—after the initial surge of PAC-backed wins in 2022—those recaps have repeatedly shown that Texans don’t want what the book banners are selling.
But the book banners kept coming, reasoning (I assume) that in certain places they were invincible, that with enough money, they could still win.
2025—during which extremist majorities in Katy, Keller, Cy-Fair, and Fort Bend all lost dramatically—seems to have finally disabused them of that notion. This year, many book-banning incumbents are choosing not to run again. PACs and groups that shrieked about “CRT” and library books have either folded entirely or scrubbed their websites of those topics.
Does that mean the stakes are lower for those of us who care about the freedom to read? No. Unfortunately, that wave of book-banning energy in 2021 and 2022 seeped up to the state legislature, which passed new laws that have drastically reduced the availability of books to students in Texas. And that makes a good school board more important than ever.3
That said, this is the first year where the challenge is less about defending districts from bad candidates; instead, we have the opportunity to elect a slew of great candidates.
I mentioned this in Tuesday’s TPA roundup. I look forward to these every cycle now. The May 2026 guide itself is here, it’s still a work in progress but it includes or will include what you need to know about such local races as Clear Creek, Spring Branch, Pearland, and Katy ISDs. There are still bad candidates out there and some good ones that need defending, but it is nice to be able to move the ball forward a little. The Chron noted the tonal shift in Katy ISD in making their endorsements – they also endorsed in Spring Branch here – and they have coverage of Katy, Spring Branch, and Clear Creek here, whilethe San Antonio Report has more on Alamo Heights ISD. Read up and go vote for some good candidates.