Missouri City and Stafford voters will help decide the future of public school curriculum when eight seats on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) go before voters statewide on Nov. 3.
The 15-member board sets the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards that govern what students learn at Fort Bend ISD and Stafford Municipal School District campuses. It also oversees the Texas Permanent School Fund, a $60 billion pool of mineral and oil rights revenue that helps school districts secure lower interest rates on construction bonds. The fund saves Texas taxpayers about $150 million a year in lower property tax costs, the SBOE says, as first reported by ABC13.
Missouri City and Stafford fall within SBOE districts that overlap the Houston-Pearland corridor. As of the board's January 2026 meeting, District 4 was represented by Staci Childs of Houston and District 7 by Julie Pickren of Pearland. Both districts appear on the ballot, according to the Texas AFL-CIO's endorsement list, which names Democratic candidates Coretta Mallet-Fontenot in District 4 and Tiffany Perkinz in District 7. Full candidate lists, including Republican nominees, were not available from the sources reviewed for this article.
The board's recent curriculum votes have drawn attention. In June 2026, the SBOE voted 9-4 to add Bible stories to a mandatory reading list for several grade levels, Houston Public Media reported. The same session approved changes to kindergarten through eighth-grade social studies standards that shift emphasis toward Texas and U.S. history. Those changes affect more than 5 million students statewide but do not take effect until the 2030-31 school year.
The board approved the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum in 2024. Developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), Bluebonnet covers K-12 math and K-5 reading and language arts. Its reading lessons include Christian Bible stories, drawing backlash from religious leaders and education advocates. Rabbi Joshua Fixler of Congregation Emanu El called the curriculum "a violation of our public school students' religious liberty" at a June 26 Houston ISD board meeting where that district adopted the materials, Houston Public Media reported.
Districts that adopt Bluebonnet receive $60 per student in state funding, according to the San Antonio Report. About 30% of Texas districts had adopted the curriculum by late June 2026, according to HISD Deputy Superintendent Kristen Hole. Whether Fort Bend ISD or Stafford MSD uses Bluebonnet could not be confirmed from available records.
In February 2026, the SBOE approved more than 4,200 corrections to Bluebonnet materials, covering copyright violations, formatting errors and typos. TEA spent up to $8.2 million on fixes and fired the vendor it blamed for the mistakes.
"It's special interest driving the decisions, not professionals, not educators, not the community, not taxpayers, not Texans," Carrie Griffiths, executive director of Our Schools Our Democracy, said June 27 after the board's reading-list vote.
Fort Bend ISD serves more than 75,000 students across 78 campuses and earned a B in the state's 2026 accountability ratings, raising its score from 80 to 82, according to the Houston Chronicle. Those ratings reflect the TEKS standards the next board will shape.
Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30. Voters can check which SBOE district they fall in by contacting the Fort Bend County Elections office or reviewing their sample ballot online.
