Thomas Ray Garcia
Special to the NEWS
PHARR, TX—Thomas Ray Garcia, a Valley educator, author, and entrepreneur, recently announced his candidacy for a seat on the Texas Education Board.
According to his biography, throughout his 12 years of experience in K-12 and higher education, Garcia has taught in the classroom and spearheaded programs focused on college readiness and family engagement.
Raised by a single mother in a working-class household, Garcia learned the value of self-advocacy, hard work, and consistency.
When Garcia discovered he could attend Princeton University at no cost because he qualified for need-based financial aid, he worked harder and was named valedictorian of the PSJA North class of 2012. He was accepted to Princeton University as a first-generation college student.
At age 19, Garcia founded the College Scholarship Leadership Access Program (CSLAP), which offers courses and services on college readiness, financial aid, and leadership development for high school students.
Through CSLAP’s near-peer mentor initiatives, Garcia empowered high school graduates to give back to their schools by providing students with support on the college application process.
After incorporating CSLAP as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Garcia served as the operation’s executive director. Under Garcia’s leadership, CSLAP introduced scholarship programs, expanded mentorship initiatives, and launched a five-figure community aid fund during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, Garcia joined the board of directors as chairman. As of 2025, CSLAP has directly impacted more than 2,000 students.
As a high school teacher, Garcia developed and taught lessons on critical writing, college readiness, and service learning. Aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), these lesson plans continue to form CSLAP’s curriculum.
As a graduate student at UCLA, Garcia taught his own courses in composition, literature, and creative writing. He also participated in UCLA Seminars in Teaching and Excellence, where Thomas researched effective models of teaching community engagement in writing courses.
Currently, Garcia is an English professor at South Texas College, where he teaches both dual-enrollment high school students and adult learners.
As a college professor, Garcia provides his students the guidance he once needed as a first-generation college student from a single-parent household.
Garcia earned his bachelor’s degree in English at Princeton University. As an undergraduate, he co-founded the Princeton Hidden Minority Council, a student organization dedicated to supporting first-generation and low-income college students.
In 2016, Princeton University awarded Garcia and his fellow co-founders the Martin Luther King Journey Award for their impact on the campus community.
While at Princeton, Garcia also wrote blogs for prospective students through the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and spearheaded public speaking workshops through the Speak with Style student organization.
As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, he received mentorship on becoming a leader in higher education and advocating for the humanities.
Garcia earned his first master’s degree in English from UCLA, where he concentrated in writing pedagogy and composition, and earned his second master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from UTRGV. His coursework focused on student affairs and budgeting finance in higher education.
Garcia also writes books about South Texas.
He is the author of the award-winning book The River Runs: Stories and co-author of El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor, a historical memoir of the South Texas Chicano Movement.
In 2020, Garcia co-authored a children’s picture book, Speechless, with Matt Eventoff to encourage children to practice public speaking.
All proceeds from Speechless are dedicated to providing children free paperbacks in English or Spanish.
Over 5,500 paperbacks of Speechless have been distributed to school districts, nonprofit organizations, and households nationwide.
In 2024, Garcia co-founded Beyond Borders Books, an independent publishing press dedicated to publishing authors from border communities.
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is the policy-making body of the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which coordinates all public educational activities and services except those of colleges and universities.
The SBOE approves, on the recommendation of the commissioner of education, the plan of organization; adopts policies, rules, and regulations; approves budgets; executes contracts for the purchase of textbooks and instructional materials as recommended by the commissioner; directs the investment of the Permanent School Fund; passes on appeals made from the decisions of the commissioner; reviews the educational needs of the state; and evaluates programs under the direction of TEA.
The first ex-officio Board of Education was created by the Texas Constitution of 1866, Article X, Section 10, and consisted of the governor, comptroller of public accounts, and superintendent of public education.
Its composition was altered by the Texas Constitution of 1876, Article VII, Section 8, to include the Texas Governor, Secretary of State, and Comptroller of Public Accounts, “who shall distribute said funds to the several counties and perform such other duties concerning public schools as may be prescribed by law.” An elective office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction was established in 1884 (Substitute Senate Bills 32 and 44, 18th Texas Legislature, Special Session). In 1905 (Senate Bill 218, 29th Legislature, Regular Session), the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was designated as ex officio secretary to the three-member State Board of Education.