Stephanie Guerrero Saenz

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.

I want to secure additional funding for the public education system by increasing the basic allotment to a minimum of 10,500 for regular education students and up to 30,000 for special education students. We should be fair about how we fund our Texas students. I want an end to the A-F school rating system that requires high stakes testing of our students, and I want healthcare that teachers and school employees can afford.

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?

We could find more funding for public schools by ending the voucher program, ending high stakes testing and ending big tax cuts to industry, in order to dedicate those funds to public schools. We need a combination of earmarked funds and flexible dollars. I say that because school districts need flexibility to create student programming that is needed in their specific community, and there are some items like teacher pay increases, special ed services, CTE programs, security, sanitation, and facilities that could be earmarked.

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?

No, I do not believe that we should be subsidising the private school tuition of wealthy students. And now that we do have a voucher system, we should require the same transparency and accountability for private schools as we do public schools.

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?

I believe individuals need to be incentivised to go into education. I would offer grants to university students majoring in high need subjects to complete their education coursework, and I would require those students to work in a high need district for 3 years, which would include a year of paid student teaching. I would even propose a housing allowance during student teaching.

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 do support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators, and I believe that it should be an automatic increase based on the rise in the cost of living instead of having to be voted on each legislative cycle.

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?

Teachers know that every time they get a pay raise the insurance companies are going to take it, and it is worse for auxiliary staff and retirees. I would like to see our state create a public option or a single-payer system.

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 believe that we need to keep the Teacher Retirement System in place, and include an automatic cost of living adjustment for retirees.

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?

I understand the need for accountability, but we have been doing it all wrong. More testing is not the solution. Test results should not determine A-F accountability ratings or 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?

The Parent/Guardian, teacher, and student relationship can be a delicate balance, and it is important that teachers learn how to communicate in a way that is focused on student academic success. The parent's wishes for their student should be respected and the students autonomy must be respected at the same time. The teacher is there to provide their students with tools for learning, while understanding that parents are their child's first teachers. Teachers should be able to listen to student concerns without the pressure of policing their morality. That is the job of the parent.

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?

We have to be persistent and vocal about requiring our state to fund these mandates. School districts are employing officers, putting up fencing, installing cameras, doing practice drills, locking every door, etc.... The only thing that has come to my mind is replacing classroom doors with bullet proof doors and ensuring that the classroom walls can resist gun fire. Our training has been to turn off the lights and hide and in some occasions fight back or run. I'm not in an area where it would be easy to escape, so the only standing between my class and a gunman is a wooden door.

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?

Our SBOE has been a political mess since before I started teaching in 1997. A standard curriculum put forth by the state should be a good thing, but in Texas that is not the case. The state curriculum should be a baseline of well developed age appropriate standards that districts can both achieve and build on. I also think that it should be a requirement to have 5 years of teaching experience before being able to run for the SBOE.

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?

Yes. It is a convenience to the teacher to be able to have dues deducted from their paychecks, and every teacher needs to be a member of a teacher organization for the support and legal education.