Speaking at the next monthly meeting of the Gillespie County Democratic Association on Wednesday, May 15, will be Dr. Raquel Saenz Ortiz, candidate for the Texas Board of Education to represent District 10 of which Gillespie County is a part.
Presided over by GCDA President Charlotte Freeborn, the meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Gillespie County Democratic Party headquarters, 209 North Crockett, Suite 1.
Ortiz, who will represent her party in this fall’s Nov. 5 general election after being chosen as a candidate in the March 5 Texas Democratic Party primary, has a 15-year history in education that includes serving as an assistant college professor, school administrator and classroom teacher.
Speaking in support of her candidacy, the daughter of Latin American immigrants from Puerto Rico and Mexico has underscored “a vision to create a more equitable education system in Texas that promotes critical thinking in all content areas and ensures the success of every student — regardless of background or circumstances — in connecting learning to the real world.”
Ortiz has also stressed that she is committed to “finding innovative solutions that will benefit all teachers and students,” adding that her passion for education stems from her own experiences witnessing failures of the education system.
Driven by her belief in the importance of great teachers, she has vowed to work to ensure that educators have a voice in the decisions that impact their classrooms.
“Teachers are leaving the profession at higher rates than ever before due to increased responsibilities and the politicization of schooling,” she said, adding she is committed to reducing unnecessary burdens on teachers and to ensure decisions reflect both teachers’ and students’ needs.
A native of New Mexico, she earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Colorado College in 2008, followed by a master’s degree in historic interdisciplinary studies from the Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico) and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Boston College in 2021.
She began her career as a sixth-grade social studies teacher in the Rio Grande Valley across the border from where her father grew up in Reynosa, Mexico. She later taught dual language element a r y in Nicaragua and high school history in Boston in addition to working as a guidance counselor. While teaching in Boston, she helped develop an ethnic studies curriculum for the city’s public schools. It was also in that city where she met her husband, Martial Sanchez Ocampo, while they were teaching high school.
Today, Ortiz is an instructor at Southwestern University in Georgetown where she and her family live and where she instructs Foundations and Curriculum of American Schools classes as well as most of the methods courses for pre-service secondary teachers in addition to serving as Director of Field Based Placements for preservice secondary teachers.