DALLAS -- In a rare television appearance, Mary Lou Bruner explained controversial comments she has made, outlined policy and talked about the politics of her race for the state board of education that has made national news.
Bruner, appeared with her opponent, Keven Ellis, for a taping on WFAA-TV’s Inside Texas Politics to air Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. on Channel 8.
Bruner is a veteran school teacher with 36 years of experience. Ellis is the school board president at Lufkin ISD.
They’re in the Republican runoff to represent District 9 on the State Board of Education. It’s a 31-county region which encompasses northeast Texas, from the eastern edge of Dallas all the way to the Louisiana border.
The State Board of Education sets curriculum standards and chooses text books for public school children in Texas.
But this contest is hardly a sleepy one.
This week, Bruner lost an endorsement from Grassroots America, We The People -– a prominent Tea Party group -- after she was criticized for citing incorrect information in a speech to school superintendents in East Texas.
According to video of Bruner’s speech to that group, she said “we are approaching 50% of our student population in the special education programs.”
“I’m really sorry there was this misunderstanding,” Bruner told WFAA.
She said she misspoke and meant to say almost half of Texas students are in “one special program or another,” not “special education.”
“More than 50% of our children are in some at-risk program, some at-risk special program, so the intent was not wrong,” Bruner said.
Bruner said she would like Grassroots America, We The People to reconsider the revocation of its endorsement.
“I would certainly like for [JoAnn Fleming] to return the respect to me and give me the endorsement back,” Bruner said.
At that same event with superintendents, she also said one-in-six high school students in the state are college ready -– a statement which drew even more criticism.
Bruner cites Achieve.org, a non-partisan, non-profit education reform organization which reports 27% of all college students met college readiness benchmarks in 2014-2015.
“My statement was a little bit larger than that, but it is still in the same range,” she explained.
Bruner made national headlines for controversial Facebook posts she made last summer and fall in which she wrote, among other things, President Obama was a male prostitute in his twenties to pay for his drug habit and Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan looked like a terrorist when he had a beard.
Bruner was asked whether, in hindsight, she should have posted such comments.
“When I wrote those things, I wasn’t even intending to run for the State Board of Education. I had no idea that I would," she said. "I was actually calling people and trying to get them to run -– people with my values -- and I couldn’t find anyone. They kept saying ‘Well, why don’t you run?'”
Her statements have overshadowed this regional race and left Ellis fighting for attention and calling for accountability.
"What you say matters. We're both Christians. We're both conservatives. You're not going to see a difference there," he said. "But how we handle ourselves out in public, how we speak, and how we will work on the state board is where you're going to see the difference."
Bruner is the front-runner in the race, finishing the March 1 primary with 48% of the vote to Ellis’ 31%.
Ellis said that's because he got a late start on campaigning.
“We literally had six weeks before early voting started to reach 31 counties and 1.7-milion people, and I’ll be the first to tell you, we weren’t able to do that very well," he said. "It’s been a whole different ball game, now that we’ve had an extra three months. Support has just been pouring in from every direction."
He dismissed questions about whether he supports Common Core or C Scope.
"I’ve heard he endorses '21st-century learning standards or principles,' and those are the new code words for Agenda 21 and Common Core,” Bruner said.
"No code words, Ellis replied. “On my website, we talk about a 21st-century education, because we are in the 21st century."
Both also discussed how school districts can operate more efficiently and made a plea for last-minute support.
Early voting ended Friday. Tuesday is election day.
You can watch the entire, unedited interview on Inside Texas Politics this Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. on WFAA Channel 8.