Lisa McEntire

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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.

My top priorities are strong basics, safe campuses, and local control. Every child deserves to graduate able to read, write, and do math at grade level, prepared for college, a career, or the trades. Legislatively, I would focus on strengthening early literacy, improving teacher recruitment, retention, and classroom support, and ensuring school safety mandates are fully funded.

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 support increasing flexible funding so districts can meet their unique needs, paying for increases through responsible budgeting, economic growth, and prioritizing education within the existing budget, not new broad-based taxes. I’d also look to avoid excessive state micromanagement of local dollars; district leaders know their students best, and flexibility is critical to keeping schools financially stable.

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 support parental choice, including ESAs, while also recognizing that public schools educate the majority of Texas students and must be fully funded. Texas can and should do both. ESAs must be fully accountable, with clear spending rules, audits, and academic reporting. With this balance in place, we can expand academic opportunity while protecting public education.

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?

To strengthen the new teacher pipeline, I support expanding paid teacher residencies, reducing unnecessary certification barriers while maintaining high standards, and providing mentorship and classroom support for early-career teachers.

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?

I support a state-funded pay raise for all educators, not just classroom teachers. Raises must be fully funded (including associated benefit costs), and compensation should be adjusted regularly to keep pace with inflation.

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?

Educator health care costs are unsustainable and unacceptable. I support increasing the state’s contribution to TRS-ActiveCare and TRS-Care, exploring larger risk pools, and protecting benefits for retirees who planned their futures around these promises.

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?

Yes, I believe TRS should remain a defined-benefit pension plan. The state must maintain actuarial soundness, avoid risky restructuring schemes, and honor commitments already made to teachers to ensure every public educator is secure in their retirement.

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?

Standardized testing should be one tool in the evaluation process, but not the only tool. Testing should inform instruction, but A-F ratings should rely on more measures than solely test scores. Similarly, test results should not be tied directly to teacher pay.

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 are their children’s first teachers, and their voices are of the utmost importance. In order to strike the right balance here, we must ensure transparency and parental access to information, respect for professional educators’ expertise, and have locally elected school boards making policy decisions.

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?

School safety is a core state responsibility, and these mandates must not go unfunded. We need to fully fund safety requirements (including personnel and facilities), support trained school marshals and stronger law enforcement partnerships, and give districts flexibility in how they meet safety goals.

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 should set clear academic standards, but curriculum decisions belong as close to students as possible. The SBOE sets standards, the TEA provides guidance and oversight, and local districts select materials and implementation. It is crucial that parents and educators have a meaningful voice at the local level.

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?

I support the right of public employees to voluntarily join professional associations as there is no cost to taxpayers and educators deserve the freedom to associate as they choose. As a legislator, I will always stand up for educators’ individual liberties.