Tim Burke

Strongly Agree

A school's role is to keep that student in school and to get her parents involved, not to direct the outcome. Texas law requires parental involvement here and I'd expect the district to follow it. Beyond that, the practical work is real and it's the part people skip: a pregnant or parenting student is at high risk of not graduating. The district should make sure she knows her options for staying enrolled, keeps up academically, and finishes. A diploma changes that young woman's life and her child's. Decisions about the pregnancy itself belong to her family, not to a campus employee.

Strongly Agree

I support public funding of K through 12, and I support Pre-K funding. Willis ISD educates 9,579 children. What I'd push for is accountability for what the money buys: performance and efficiency audits, published academic targets, and a board that reads the financials instead of accepting a presentation. On college cost, dual credit and CTE let a Willis student leave with college hours or a certification and no debt. That's the most direct thing a school board can do about it.

It means government doesn't direct anyone's religious practice. It does not mean scrubbing religion out of education, and the two get confused constantly. The Bible belongs in our libraries and it's there. You can't teach literature or American history coherently without it. Students can pray and nobody should interfere. The district's role is academic, not devotional. As a Christian, I'd rather my son learn his faith from us and our church than from a government employee.

Strongly Agree

I support ICE enforcing federal immigration law. It isn't a school board matter, but one related piece is: under Plyler v. Doe, public schools must enroll all children regardless of immigration status. A district has no discretion there, and I'd follow the law as written.

Strongly Disagree

Those aren't decisions a school should be facilitating, and bringing outside providers into that role cuts parents out of exactly the conversations they should be at the center of. Texas law is clear on this and I'd expect Willis ISD to follow it.

Strongly Agree

It's a teacher retention issue as much as a discipline one. A teacher who isn't backed up when they send a student out starts looking at other districts. One disruptive classroom costs every kid sitting in it. I'd want a discipline policy that's clear, consistently applied, actually enforced, and measured so we know whether it's working. Consistency matters as much as severity. A rule applied to some students and not others teaches a worse lesson than no rule.

Strongly Agree

Teach American history and civics from the primary documents: the Declaration, the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Lincoln. Students should read them rather than read about them. I'd rather graduate students who love this country because they understand it than because they were told to. Teach the documents honestly and patriotism tends to follow. That has been true of every person I know who actually read them.

Disagree

Disagree, though I want control closer to states and communities. Federal dollars reach Willis ISD through Title I and IDEA, and those obligations matter to real kids in our classrooms. What I'd want is fewer strings from Washington and more decisions made by people who live in the district and can be found at the grocery store. Local control is the goal. Abolishing the department isn't the only route to it, and I'd rather fix the thing than blow it up.

I support sex education in Willis ISD with the structure Texas already requires: written parental opt-in, our School Health Advisory Council recommending curriculum, and the board approving it. Parents should see the actual materials before anything is adopted.

Disagree

UIL eligibility is tied to enrollment, along with academic eligibility and attendance rules the district can verify for its own students and can't verify for others. That isn't discrimination, it's the condition the rules run on. Families who choose instruction outside the public system are making a legitimate choice, and this is one of the tradeoffs that comes with it.

1 Language Arts, 2 Mathematics, 3 American History, 4 Civics, 5 Science, 6 Vocational Learning, 7 Information Technology, 8 Personal Finances, 9 Physical Fitness, 10 Art and Music, 11 Foreign Language. Reading first and not close. A child who can't read by third grade fights uphill in every subject after. Omitted: CRT (a graduate legal theory, not taught in Texas K-12), SEL (no published curriculum here), Gender Identity, Sexuality, Political Activism.

Agree

Academics first, because teaching a child to read is the one thing only a school can do. Character comes from how a school is run: consistent expectations, real consequences, adults who model what they're asking for. Self-government is worth naming separately. A local school board is the closest most people ever get to it. Seven neighbors, elected, answerable to the people sitting in the room. Students should understand why that structure exists.

Agree

I don't support it, though I understand why others do, and I'll grant the competition argument has real force. My concern is practical: public dollars leaving a district don't reduce its fixed costs, and a public school takes every child who arrives while private options don't have to. Where I agree with the premise is that Willis ISD should have to earn families. My answer is to compete by being good and to publish our results so parents can judge us honestly.

Strongly Disagree

On schools, which is what this office decides: no. The Supreme Court held in June 2026 that states may set girls' eligibility by biological sex, and Texas and UIL already do. Girls' locker rooms and showers should be for girls. Privacy where a child is changing clothes isn't a political position. Sorority houses, shelters and prisons aren't a school board's call, so I'll leave those to the people who decide them. None of this requires being unkind to any child.

I'm a Christian and have been my whole life. My family attends Restoration Church in Montgomery, where I volunteer running media and IT. My faith is the foundation for how I make decisions and how I treat people, including people who disagree with me. It's also why I think showing up for your community is an obligation rather than a hobby. A Willis ISD trustee serves every family here. My faith is the reason I take that seriously, not a reason to set it aside.

Strongly Agree

Parents are the decision-makers for their own children and the school works for them: seeing what's taught, reviewing the materials, knowing who's teaching, and getting a real answer when they ask. The part I'd add is that a right you don't know you have isn't worth much. Texas law now requires a great deal of this, and the board's job is making sure the district complies in substance rather than on paper, and tells parents plainly what they're entitled to.

Strongly Agree

Children should not be taught that they carry guilt or virtue based on their race, and they shouldn't be sorted by it either. King's standard is the right one and it's the one I'd hold Willis ISD to.

Strongly Agree

I believe marriage is the union of one man and one woman, and that's how my faith and my family understand it. It isn't something a school board decides.

Agree

I'm not a doctor and I won't pretend to be one about how any condition should be treated. What I can tell you is the school's role, which is not to make that call. Decisions about a child's health belong to that child's parents and their physician. A school's job is to teach, to notify parents rather than work around them, and to follow state law. If a student is in real distress, the answer is involving their family, not a campus employee substituting judgment for a parent's.

Disagree

What's in Penal Code 43.24 is an affirmative defense, not an exemption, and only the Legislature can change it. On substance: literary merit shouldn't function as a loophole. If material meets the harmful-to-minors standard, an expert calling it literature isn't a reason to put it in front of a twelve-year-old. SB 13 gives the board a real process and I'd make sure Willis ISD runs it properly. Specific material, clear standard, same every time, open to parents.

Strongly Disagree

Photo ID should be required to vote. It isn't a school board matter, but that's my position.

No.

No.

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Republican.

Conservative

I'd add the honest qualifier: I'm respectful of people who see things differently, and I'm probably not as far right as others. This office is nonpartisan, and the actual work is reading budgets, planning for growth, and holding a superintendent accountable. I'd rather be judged on whether Willis ISD kids can read than on a label. But if you're asking where I start from, it's conservative, and it has been my whole adult life.

Agree

Willis ISD has armed Montgomery County Sheriff deputies at every campus, and we're fortunate to have that relationship. Sworn officers with continuous training are the strongest option available and I wouldn't trade them for anything. I'm not opposed to armed staff in districts that can't field deputies. My caution is operational: in an active shooter response, arriving officers have to know who is armed and who isn't. I'd want the Sheriff's Office at the table before we changed anything.