Trent Ashby

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Survey Responses

HAS NOT RESPONDED TO THE 2026 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY.

Did not respond to the 2024, 2022, 2020 or 2018 ATPE Candidate Survey. 


Below are the candidate's responses to the 2014 ATPE Candidate Survey:

1. Is there a need to increase funding to meet the needs of our student population? If so, how would you recommend securing more revenue for public education?

Yes. A growing state, the public education system in Texas needs additional funding to meet our constitutional obligation to provide an adequate public education for our students. But the system also needs to be reformed to bring more equity in the distribution of tax dollars for public education, especially in rural areas of the state, and in a way that prevents us from having to litigate the subject every few years. The margins tax needs to be fixed in a way to provide a more reliable funding source for education.

 

2. Regardless of the level of funding, do you believe that Texas public education dollars are being spent in an appropriate manner, or should the funds be reallocated and spent in different ways?

I think equity has to be considered as a priority in the distribution of funds. Funding schools based largely on zip codes is not the answer.

 

3. Would you vote to spend public tax dollars on a voucher, tax credit or scholarship that allows students to attend non-public schools in grades K–12? Why or why not?

I am concerned about taking any additional money out of our public schools. Instead, we should be focused on bringing our poorest performing schools up to standard so that every child in Texas has access to a quality education.

 

4. Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) should be maintained as a traditional defined benefit pension plan for all future, current and retired educators, or would you vote to convert TRS to a defined contribution plan that is more like a 401(k), in which future benefits are not guaranteed? Why?

Yes. The TRS pension plan should remain a defined benefit plan so that we as a state keep the promise we made to current and future retirees who dedicated their careers to an underpaid, yet extremely important, profession with the understanding that they would enjoy stability in retirement with the benefits they earned.

 

5. Local decisions on whether to continue a teacher's employment and how much to pay each teacher are often based on evaluations. To what extent, if any, should a teacher's evaluation be based on his students' scores on state standardized tests? If you believe student test scores should factor into a teacher's evaluation, how would you recommend evaluating teachers in grades or subjects for which there are no state standardized tests?

Accountability is important in public education, not only for the students by the taxpayers. Student test scores are an important variable in measuring student, teacher, school and district achievement. However, student scores should only be a piece of a comprehensive approach to measuring success in public education that should involve many other factors and that should include growth modeling that takes into account at what level schools receive students, their ability to speak English, and then how they are able to improve over time. Creating a one-size-fits-all accountability measure is unrealistic and unfair to teachers.

 

6. Would you vote to maintain a hard cap on the number of students per class, or should school administrators be given more flexibility to increase class sizes? (Currently, the law imposes a cap of 22:1 in grades K–4 but allows schools to obtain a waiver, a step many of them routinely take.)

We should take whatever steps possible to maintain as low a student to teacher ratio as we can afford as a state. We should work to fund districts equitably and not at a level that allows them to hit this cap and seek additional waivers.

 

7. If a public school in your district failed to meet state accountability standards for two or more consecutive years, would you support allowing a private entity to take over the management of that school, essentially converting it to a charter school?

No.

 

8. Do you believe charter schools in Texas have been largely successful? Should their presence be expanded? Why or why not?

I think charter schools have a place in our public education arena, but I think you have to view them on a case-by-case basis. In some instances, charter schools have been highly successful and put pressure on neighboring traditional public schools to improve. In other cases, we've seen charter schools perform poorly and lose their license. Texas just increased the number of charter school licenses, so I think we should monitor the current licensees for a period of time before we expand again.