Gov. Abbott appoints Carroll ISD trustee Hannah Smith to Texas virtual commission board

Carroll ISD Trustee Hannah Smith will soon take on a new role.

On Wednesday, Smith was one of four appointments elected by Governor Greg Abbott to the Texas Commission on Virtual Education.

“I am grateful to Governor Abbott for this appointment and look forward to working with my colleagues on this important commission,” Smith told The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday afternoon.

Two other North Texas residents were elected to the board. Josue Tamarez Torres of Forney, a Dallas ISD Master Teacher for over a decade; and Bernie Francis of Carrollton, who is the CEO of Business Control Systems and is former Councilor and Mayor of Carrollton.

Austin-based Rex Gore, President of Texas-based PJS and co-founder of CleanScapes, was elected chairman of the commission.

Smith was assisted by the Southlake Families PAC in their successful application for the trusteeship last May.

Since joining the school board in May, Smith has been a vocal advocate of critical racial theory and the district’s proposed Cultural Competency Action Plan (CCAP), believing it would create more division in the community. Smith said her election shows that voters did not want “the racially divisive theories of the critical races to be taught to their children or imposed on their teachers.”

Smith is an attorney and counsel with Schaerr Jaffe LLP, a Washington, DC law firm, and has been a Senior Counsel and Fellow for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. She also served as a clerk for US Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. Smith is also a board member of the Religious Freedom Institute and the DFW Alliance for Religious Freedom. She is a Senior Fellow of the International Center for Law & Religious Studies.

Smith received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her Juris Doctor degree from Brigham Young University Law School.

According to a press release, the commission was set up “to develop and make recommendations for the provision of virtual education in the public school system and government funding for virtual education under the foundation school program”.

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