Bonnie Abadie

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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.

I ran for the RISD school board three times because my kids were not getting the education I felt they needed. I raised a gifted child and an “undiagnosed” gifted child and the district just wasn’t challenging them, in my opinion, so I ran for school board. Because of my running on the g/t platform, RISD implemented G/T services at the secondary level. Of course, this all got implemented after my kids graduated so they never got the benefits of my efforts.
 
Fast forward 10 years and I ran again still trying to make education better for kids. I think we have gotten too far away from classical education and are relying too much on technology. I think the state mandated testing is ludicrous and is just a money grab for the edutech companies. I think we need to probably do away with the TEA and SBOE as well as tax payer funded lobbying such as TASA and TASB.
 
I also feel that school districts (and cities for that matter) should be able to set aside funds for capital improvements so that we aren’t in perpetual debt. The passage of the RISD bonds is going to cost us $1B in interest over the life of the loan. That’s a lot of money that could be used elsewhere. I think school districts are enticed by all of these companies trying to sell them shiny objects instead of tried-and-true pedagogy. I think the teachers need to get back to teaching and stop relying on the tech to teach. We are doing a great disservice to our kids’ health. Their developing bodies don’t need to be hunched over computers and tablets at all during the day. I know my eyes are so very dry, my neck and shoulders hurt, and I get tingling in my hands from the computers. People who say that we’ll be behind the rest of the world if we don’t teach our kids the technology are part of the problem. Kids will learn technology because so many of them have it at home. Heck, two-year-olds know how to operate phones and tablets better than me!
 
Now let’s talk vouchers! I know it’s a hot topic, but I am in the Republican half that is against them. One of my first goals in office would be to repeal them. Abbott pushed them through as his own personal agenda and even “threatened” legislators if they didn’t push vouchers through. For starters, we shouldn’t have them and if we did want them, the public should have been able to vote yes or no on them. The families that might really benefit from the vouchers (lower SES families who are working two to three jobs just to make ends meet) still won’t be able to come up with the extra $5-10k to make up the difference to pay for private school! Let’s get education back to the school districts. Local control. Make the schools better and kids won’t need private school unless they are wanting the religious aspect.
 
Back to school finance. I'm still trying to delve into how the state funds education. Robin Hood needs to go away.  A lot of my frustration is with the amount of unnecessary spending that happens at the district level, but we need better school boards to stand up to administration who falls for the shiny carrots. School districts are top heavy and we could cut out a lot of the administrators to provide for teachers.
 
Ok, now teacher pay. I know I’m not going to be popular with this, but teachers make excellent starting salaries. I’ve been looking at part-time jobs and of course the full-time jobs pop up as well. So many of them are $40k and under. The thing that isn’t so great is the pay raises and paraprofessional pay is abysmal! I’m all for get the funding straightened out, but I need to study the state level more.

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?

I feel the state budget needs to be studied more for me to be able to better answer this question. One of the reasons I decided to run last minute, though, is because of the amendments that were placed on the ballot and blindly voted on by voters. How many other items in the budget have been approved by voters? $1B a year for dementia research?! Am I going to get free dementia care when I need it? Probably not. These are the kinds of things that should not have even been on the ballot.

I do however believe the WADA funding and Robin Hood for schools also needs to go away. The districts collect the money. Why is the state mandating how it spends the money?

3. ESA Vouchers:

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?

I would like to repeal the voucher bill since taxpayers were not allowed to vote on them. I'm not even 100% sure that they should be on the ballot. If private schools and home school families are accepting money from the state, I don't trust the state to not mandate how kids are taught (state testing & curriculum). I am just starting to get into the state funding so I will need more time to form an opinion on this.

4. Teacher Recruitment and Retention:

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?

All teachers should be certified before being hired as a full time teacher in core courses.

5. Educator Pay and Benefits:

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?

Part of me thinks the state should stay out of education and we should be able to put the I back in the ISD. School districts should have autonomy to run their districts in the way that best fits their needs, but with voter approvals. On the other hand, I don't want districts to run amuck with their spending and they will because the general public just gives the districts what they want without considering the ramifications of how they vote. I think a lot of the funding at the district level is wasted on unnecessary administrators in many districts and if we "chop the top", there would be more for teacher pay and classroom supplies.

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?

I think the districts should determine how much they will contribute to the health care system. The state should be able to negotiate the best rates due to the sheer volume of teachers, however, school districts should determine how much they contribute to the cost.

7. Retirement Security:

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?

I have not studied the TRS as of yet so I'm not familiar with how it is set up. Now that I am getting closer to the age where I can start receiving my TRS benefits, I will be delving more into it.

8. Accountability and Assessment Reform:

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?

Back in the day when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in school, we took the CAT test in third grade and sixth grade. I never took another standardized test until the SAT and ACT. We studied the material that was taught and took end of unit exams. I think I turned out ok and smarter than the average bear, so I think we should go back to something similar. Let the teachers teach and stop relying on technology to teach the material. All of these state mandated tests aren't about educating our students, it's about money to be made by the testing companies and legislators receiving money from the testing companies to push the testing.

9. Parental Rights and Community Voice:

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?

Parents most definitely should have a say in their kids' education. I also feel teachers should not be bringing their political or moral beliefs into the classroom. They should teach the subject matter without personal opinions. I also feel the curriculum should not contain political and moral ideologies. If they do, parents have every right to speak up. If we stick with a classical educational model, those ideologies in the classroom will be a moot point.

10. School Safety:

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?

It's a shame how society has changed in this manner due to the mental health crisis. I think if we can concentrate more effort on this we will reduce the number of school violence events. These things, however, should be decided upon at the district level since every district, and even each school within a district, has different needs.

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?

It seems the curriculum changes every few years. Why is that? It's all about the money going into the legislators' and the education company's pockets! Ancient history through modern times doesn't change, why does the curriculum change? Add on a small section for current events without changing the entire curriculum. Math is math, science is science, and reading and writing are just that. Why do we have both the TEA and SBOE? We need to look at eliminating one or both. I'd be willing to bet we could find old textbooks in storage that will work just fine and think of all of the savings by using existing curriculum. We need to get away from technology use by students. It's expensive and studies have proven that students learn better when physically writing notes vs typing on a computer. It's also damaging to their young developing bodies. My neck, shoulders, hands, and eyes are constantly in turmoil because of electronics. I can only imagine what it's doing to our youth. The state should only be mandating that we teach a classic curriculum.

12. Educator Rights and Professional Associations:

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?

Anyone should be allowed to join whatever organization they want. They should not be mandated or pressured to join an organization.