Angie Carraway
Additional Information from ATPE
Ran unopposed in the 2026 Democratic primary for Texas House District 89 and will be on the November 2026 general election ballot.
Voting records currently not available. Please check back later.
Survey Responses
RESPONSES TO THE 2026 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:
1. If elected, what are your top priorities for Texas public education?Please describe any specific goals or legislative initiatives you would pursue to strengthen the state’s public education system.
My first legislative priority is to immediately end Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and school vouchers. We cannot afford to divert critical funding from our already underfunded public schools.
My second goal is to adjust the basic student allotment to reflect inflation, ensuring that school budgets keep pace with rising costs and can continue to support our students effectively.
Finally, I am committed to advocating for a minimum salary of at least $65,000 annually for our teachers, recognizing the importance of fair compensation for the professionals who shape our future.
2. Public Education Funding:
The 89th Legislature passed an $8 billion school funding bill, HB 2. However, despite years of unanswered “inflationary challenges, a large majority of that funding was earmarked to specific programs and did not supply districts with significant flexible funding, leaving the majority of Texas students in districts with deficit budgets and other significant funding challenges. Do you believe Texas public schools should receive additional funding? If so, how should the state pay for it, and should that funding be earmarked at the state level or provide districts with flexible dollars?
Yes, over the past decade the state has consistently reduced its financial commitment to public education, forcing local governments to make up the difference just to keep school districts functioning. This approach is unsustainable and unfair to both students and taxpayers.
The state should take three immediate steps: first, end Education Savings Accounts (ESAs); second, increase the basic student allotment by at least $1,000 to help offset inflationary costs; and third, raise the minimum teacher salary to 65,000 annually.
These reforms can and should be funded using the state's current billion-dollar surplus. The resources are available. They are simply not being allocated responsibly. Public school funding should be a state level responsibility according to our state's constitution, the state must step up to meet it.
Education savings accounts (ESAs) redirect public funds to private or home schools. How do you believe Texas should fund public schools, traditional and charter, alongside ESA vouchers? How should ESA spending be held accountable to taxpayers?
Texas should fully fund public schools by establishing a reasonable basic student allotment, ideally set at approximately $7,500 per student. At the same time, school vouchers (ESAs) should be eliminated immediately, as they divert critical resources away from public education into the hands of for profit businesses instead.
If the state chooses to support private education, it should do so through a completely separate funding mechanism. A distinct fund separate from public school funding could be created to allow parents to apply for a school tax credit without undermining public schools. In cases where students leave public school for legitimate medical reasons, those costs should be addressed through medical insurance rather than the public education budget.
Regardless of the funding model the state adopts, all schools receiving public dollars must be held to the same standards. If ESAs are not eliminated, participating schools should be required to meet the same certification, evaluation, accountability, and curriculum standards that public schools are required to follow.
Under HB 2, passed in 2025, all educators in core content courses (math, English, science, and social studies) must be certified by 2030. While this is a good start, more can and should be done to ensure high-quality teachers continue to enter the classroom. What are your suggestions to improve the quality of the new teacher pipeline?
First and foremost, teachers must be paid a livable wage. If we expect to attract and retain high-quality educators, we must compensate them accordingly. It is unacceptable and a disservice to the profession that some classrooms are led by teachers who are not properly certified.
Additionally, there should be a national collegiate coalition or governing board tasked with establishing and maintaining minimum standards for education degree programs across the United States. Creating consistent, high-quality benchmarks for teacher preparation would strengthen the profession and improve outcomes for both new teachers and students.
The 89th Legislature passed legislation creating a new mechanism to provide only classroom teachers with tiered raises based on early years of service and their district’s student enrollment. While the raises were significant, they did not apply to all campus educators, and the program created a significant negative funding stream at the district level due to unfunded increased costs for non-salary compensation tied to payroll, such as TRS retirement contributions. Do you support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators? How would you ensure that compensation keeps pace with inflation and remains competitive with other professions?
Yes, I support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators. I would advocate for legislation that ensures educator compensation keeps pace with inflation and remains competitive with other professions that require similar levels of education, training, and certification.
6. Educator Health Care:The high cost of health insurance for active and retired educators continues to reduce take-home pay, with educators shouldering the vast majority of their ever-increasing heath care costs. How would you address the affordability and sustainability of educator health care, particularly the TRS-ActiveCare and TRS-Care programs?
The state must match the contributions that local districts make to the Teacher Retirement System (TRS). Currently, the state contributes only half of what districts provide, placing an unfair burden on local school districts.
At the state level, we should also leverage our collective buying power to negotiate TRS cost, similar to how the federal government negotiates Medicare pricing. By driving down costs and strengthening benefits, we can significantly improve teacher recruitment and retention while honoring the educators who dedicate their careers to our students.
Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) should remain a defined-benefit pension plan for all current and future members? If not, what is your plan to provide a secure retirement for Texas educators, particularly considering that state law has been set up such that most districts do not participate in Social Security?
Yes, I believe that the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) should remain a defined-benefit pension plan for all current and future members, provided the state upholds its commitment to fully fund it. Teachers rely on that promise, and the state has a responsibility to honor it.
If the state were ever to withdraw or weaken that funding commitment, the contributions teachers have made to TRS into a system they are required to participate in, should be protected. In that case, those funds should be negotiated into Social Security as if educators had been contributing to it all along, since participation in TRS is not optional.
The Legislature has passed a new “through-year” multi-test model under HB 8. What role should standardized testing play in evaluating students, teachers, and schools? Should test results continue to determine A–F accountability ratings or teacher pay?
The multi-test model under HB 8 is one of the most misguided decisions made in education policy. Standardized testing makes for high-stakes, high stress environments for teachers and students. Under the current system, a single STAAR test requires extensive preparation and administration, disrupting roughly a full week of classroom instruction, per subject that is tested. HB 8 replaces that with three smaller assessments, which ultimately means three times the preparation, three testing windows, and a significant loss of instructional time. Rather than improving learning, this approach further fragments it.
I am not opposed to standardized testing altogether, but the current model places far too much emphasis on test preparation at the expense of meaningful instruction. Teachers should have access to the assessments in advance so they understand expectations, can prepare students appropriately, and track academic growth in a realistic and transparent way.
If standardized testing is to remain part of our accountability system, the assessments themselves should be developed by experienced educators, those with at least ten years of subject expertise, who understand both content and classroom realities. teachers should never be punished financially based on test results; however, I do support the use of incentives to reward strong student performance and growth, to an extent.
Finally, while standardized testing can be one component of A-F accountability ratings, it should never be the sole deciding factor. Accountability systems must incorporate multiple measures to accurately reflect school performance, student growth, and the complex work us educators do every day.
Recent legislative debates have focused on “parental rights” in education. In your view, what is the appropriate balance between accommodating the often conflicting wishes of individual parents while maintaining policies that reflect the broader community’s educational priorities and still providing consistency and an appropriate level of professional deference to educators?
I fully agree that parents should have a voice in their child's education. However, I do not believe individual parents should be responsible for shaping district-wide education policy. Parent perspectives vary widely, and attempting to govern school through competing personal beliefs creates conflict and instability.
Educators are highly trained, certified professionals with the expertise to make informed decisions about what is best for students as a whole. When parents disagree with a particular practice or curriculum, they should absolutely have the right to make alternative choices for their own child, but not to impose those preferences on other families.
We should trust educational professionals in the same way we trust doctors, engineers, or other licensed experts. Just as I would not expect my personal opinion to drive institutional changes in medicine, we should not undermine professional education policy with individual ideology
HB 3 (2023) imposed new school safety requirements but did not fully fund them. Although the 89th Legislature increased the School Safety Allotment, many districts continue to face substantial unfunded staffing and facility costs associated with school safety laws. How would you make schools safer and ensure the state provides adequate funding to meet safety mandates?
If the state mandates changes to school safety, it must be fully prepared to fund those changes. While improving school safety in the long term would require fundamental reforms to U.S. gun laws, it seems our society is not yet ready for those changes. In the meantime, the state should take full responsibility for ensuring that schools are safe by mandating and funding necessary safety measures until broader solutions can be implemented.
11. Curriculum and Local Control:What do you believe is the proper role of the State Board of Education, the Texas Education Agency, and local school districts in setting curriculum standards and selecting instructional materials?
The State Board of Education, the Texas Education Agency, and local school districts all play a critical role in setting curriculum standards and selecting instructional materials. First and foremost, anyone making decisions in these entities should have at least five years of classroom teaching experience to ensure they understand the realities of education.
Decisions made by these bodies should also be transparent and shared with teachers and parents, allowing for input or even a vote. Education policy should never be dictated by a select few. Curriculum decisions must be collaborative, guided by expertise, and free from partisan or financial influence.
State law allows educators and other public employees to voluntarily join professional associations such as ATPE and have membership dues deducted from their paychecks at no cost to taxpayers. Do you support or oppose allowing public employees to continue exercising this right? Why or why not?
Yes educators and public employees should have the to right to join professional associations. Educators should have the same rights as other professional careers do. These professional associations provide much needed support to educators when they need it.