About Us
Teach the Vote is a project of the Association of Texas Professional Educators. ATPE's goal for Teach the Vote is to provide information to voters about the public education views and platforms of every candidate running for Texas Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Texas Legislature, and the State Board of Education. ATPE is a nonprofit organization that does not endorse candidates but provides information to its members and the public regarding candidates' positions on public education issues and ATPE priorities.
The website is designed to encourage voters to think about their own views on politics and public education, understand ATPE's positions on education issues, and consider candidates' education stances when casting votes.
About ATPE
Founded by educators for educators, ATPE is the largest independent, nonunion educator association in the United States and the largest educator association in Texas. ATPE advocates for educators and delivers affordable, high-quality products and services that give members the peace of mind needed to inspire student success. We support the state's largest community of educators who are dedicated to elevating public education in Texas. (Learn more about ATPE.)
About Teach the Vote's candidate surveys
ATPE conducts a candidate survey project each election cycle to enable candidates to communicate their views on public education to our membership and the general public. All known candidates for the State Board of Education, state legislative offices, and certain statewide offices are sent an invitation by email to participate in our survey. In collecting contact information for candidates, ATPE relies on information provided by state and county political parties, news reports, internet search engines, the Texas Secretary of State's office, private data vendors, and the candidates themselves.
The candidate survey is an online form maintained on a private webpage. Each candidate is provided a link to the survey webpage. For identity verification, ATPE also supplies each candidate with a unique security code that is used to log in to and answer the survey. Candidates are informed that their survey responses will be included on an ATPE-sponsored website. ATPE also urges the candidates to keep a copy of the survey questions and their responses for their own records.
ATPE's candidate survey consists of open-ended questions and allows for candidates to submit additional comments at the end of the survey. ATPE does not edit the candidates' survey responses. The survey responses shown on our candidate detail pages represent the actual answers supplied by candidates and may not reflect the views of ATPE or our members.
For legislative voting records, ATPE identifies key votes that were taken and recorded on education-related legislation that was of high importance to our membership. The individual legislators' record votes are verified by ATPE staff members using public records supplied by the Texas Legislature, as well as data obtained through private vendors.
Additional candidate information found on this site is compiled from a variety of sources, including current and past ATPE candidate surveys, candidate interviews, ethics reports, official voting records, the candidates' own campaign literature and advertisements, media reports and websites where applicable.
Any questions about Teach the Vote or its website content should be directed to ATPE Governmental Relations or (800) 777-2873.