Gregory Degeyter

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Gregory Degeyter

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 2, 2021

Education

Bachelor's

Lamar University, 1998

Graduate

Mississippi State University, 2000

Law

South Texas College of Law, 2007

Personal

Birthplace

Port Arthur, Texas

Religion

Roman Catholic

Profession

Attorney & business owner

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Gregory Degeyter ran for election to the Houston Independent School District to represent District VI in Texas. He lost in the general election on November 2, 2021.

Degeyter completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Gregory Degeyter was born in Port Arthur, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree from Lamar University in 1998, a graduate degree from Mississippi State University in 2000, and a J.D. from the South Texas College of Law in 2007. Degeyter's career experience includes working as an attorney focused on disability matters, the owner of Degeyter Law Firm, and a founding member and director of Prenatal Disability Help.

Elections

2021

See also: Houston Independent School District, Texas, elections (2021)

General runoff election

General runoff election for Houston Independent School District, District VI

Kendall Baker defeated incumbent Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca in the general runoff election for Houston Independent School District, District VI on December 11, 2021.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kendall Baker (Nonpartisan)	50.7	2,700
		Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca (Nonpartisan)	49.3	2,625

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,325
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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General election

General election for Houston Independent School District, District VI

Incumbent Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca and Kendall Baker advanced to a runoff. They defeated Gregory Degeyter in the general election for Houston Independent School District, District VI on November 2, 2021.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca (Nonpartisan)	42.5	3,422
✔		Kendall Baker (Nonpartisan)	40.1	3,229
		Gregory Degeyter (Nonpartisan)	17.4	1,405

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,056
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Degeyter's endorsements in the 2021 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2021

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Gregory Degeyter completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Degeyter's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Degeyter was born in Bridge City, Texas and lived there until Hurricane Ike flooded his home and office. He attended Lamar University, where he later served as an adjunct professor, receiving a Bachelors Degree in Communication; Mississippi State University, receiving a Masters in Geoscience specializing in Meteorology; and South Texas College of Law receiving a Doctorate of Jurisprudence. His law practice consists primarily of disability law, mainly Social Security, with occasional Fair Housing Act cases. He has three children, two of which are disabled, and founded and runs Prenatal Disability Help to provide pro bono legal services to expectant mothers whose babies have a disabling prenatal diagnosis. He also helps disabled children obtain Medicaid benefits through the Medicaid Buy In for Children program on a pro bono basis.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Houston ISD is a district in crisis. A fundamental culture change needs to occur to make sure the Board acts in the best interest of the students rather than continue the current infighting.
• Need knows no race, gender, creed, or ideology and perpetuating the black-brown divide and pitting the two groups against each other only serves to make sure everyone suffers.
• A majority of the students in the district read below grade level, and campuses are in danger of state control. Education curriculum should focus on subjects that will prevent state takeover.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

My primary public policy interest is disability related matters. This ranges from making sure the disabled have access to therapy services - both physically and from an opportunity standpoint - to making sure that the disabled are not discriminated against. Social Security solvency and curing inefficiencies in Social Security are also important policy areas I am concerned with. Right now, 5% of my clients die each year waiting on their Social Security disability hearing. It's hard to think of a more striking example of the inefficiencies in the system. Appropriate access to healthcare is also important. Medicine needs to transform to a restorative model rather than a maintenance model, but that requires individuals to be able to access the healthcare system in a meaningful way.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Although both are deceased, I look up to the relationship between President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill. Although they held markedly different philosophies and rarely agrees they took care to make sure they fostered a good personal relationship. This allowed them to have a good working relationship. The art of disagreeing without being disagreeable is a lost art, and society would be well served by following the example they gave. We need more statesmen, and they provide a good example of how to be statesmen.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

The core responsibilities of an office holder are to conduct themselves in a manner that is becoming of a public servant. Political office, especially a nonpartisan race such as this, are an opportunity to show personal sacrifice for the common good and should not be a stepping stone for other political ambitions. The elected official should model the best behavior that they expect district personnel to exhibit.

The elected official needs to ask themselves how does each action and/or vote they take benefit the students of the district. We all have ideas regarding fairness and equitable treatment, but that is a bad model to use for decision making because everyone is going to have a different idea of what is equitable and reasoning for why their desired course of action is grounded in equity. Need knows no race, gender, creed, or ideology and pitting groups against each other only serves to make sure everyone suffers. This mentality pits different groups against each other, and leads to winners and losers which fosters division and strife.

A better model is a model of maximize student potential. The goal of maximize student potential allows for all students to benefit by not fostering competition against each other.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like to leave a legacy of collaboration and statesmanship. To serve as an example of how to disagree civilly and cast differences aside to work for the greater good. Everyone will not agree on all subjects, but where there is common ground we should come together to implement the common ground and then respectfully work towards an acceptable compromise on the remaining areas of disagreement.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

The primary job of a school board member is to set overall district philosophy, and then leave the implementation and day to day management of the policy to the district administration. The school board needs to make sure the administration has sufficient resources to carry out the management and implementation of board policy.

In what areas would you like to expand curriculum? For example, do you see a need for advanced technical training or apprenticeships? What sort of innovative programming would you advance if given the opportunity?

The legislature recently enacted legislation allowing community colleges to begin offering four year degree programs. This creates a new opportunity for the district to collaborate with the community college districts to collaborate on additional advance placement and/or dual credit courses. HISD benefits by having a greater partnership with the community college districts and benefiting from the expertise and material support form the community colleges involved with the development and implementation of the offerings. The community colleges benefit by having HISD students attach themselves to the community college making it more likely they will pursue their studies to degree completing at the community college since four year degrees are now available. The students benefit by both having an initial exposure to the greater rigors expected in collegiate level coursework as well as having a lower student debt burden upon graduation. HISD needs to intentionally look for opportunities like this to expand involvement and collaboration with outside organizations where everyone benefits.

What strategies or plans would you advance to ensure the schools are properly funded?

The maintenance and operations tax rate in the district is already at the maximum allowable level, so an outside the box solution is needed to bring in more M&O funding. Better serving the special needs population in the district in one way to both improve special needs services as well as increase district revenue. The Texas Education Code Chapter 48 section 48.102 provides for multipliers to funding for various special needs services. Providing for maximum support for special needs population increases the funding the district receives. Additionally, Texas has very permissive laws for disabled children to receive Medicaid. I will push to make sure every special needs student who is eligible for Medicaid receives Medicaid. This not only helps the students receive appropriate care for their disabling condition, but it also allows HISD to charge Medicaid on a fee for service model for the interventions they are already required to provide special needs students benefiting both the disabled students as well as the district.

Tell us your favorite joke.

In the story Peter Pan, where did Captain Hook buy his hook?

At a second hand store.

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Candidate

Houston Independent School District, District VI

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