meet the candidate - fe bencosme

Fe Liza Ramone Bencosme Benjamin is a former educator with nearly 20 years of experience in supporting learners across linguistically diverse communities. A product of the New York City public school system, Fe was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY by Caribbean immigrants from the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic and St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands.   She is the 3rd of four daughters and comes from a very modest family, being the first to graduate high school and college and see a significant amount of the world.  Fe earned a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication and Theatre from the University of the Virgin Islands and a Master of Arts in English from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  She moved to Houston in 2015, working as an adjunct lecturer for the Houston Community College System in Doha, Qatar.  She currently dedicates her time to operating a home-based testing business and supports unwed mothers and their children with childcare and academic advising through Project Row Houses in Houston's Third Ward.  Fe has also been recognized by the Society for American Traveler Writers for her cultural writings - "You Are Not Your Race: Embracing Our Shared Identity in a Chaotic Age" is her most current work and best seller.

Upon meeting and fellowshipping with Fe, we learned more about this extraordinary woman who dared to believe that she could make a difference in Houston ISD's failing K-12 educational system.  After settling in Houston, Fe had become content with her life of work, church, and home, but her servant's heart would not allow a blind eye to be turned to her realization of Houston ISD's lowered educational standards that do not challenge children to strive for excellence nor afford them the opportunity to reach their full potential - this moral obligation was the inspiration to position herself to be able to use her insight and experience to respectively collaborate with other board members and lead the charge in adopting and implementing a curriculum that reflects a focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic that is not tainted with social issues and factual.

Fe comes from a Conservative family and has been voting Conservatively since she began exercising her right to vote in 2000; she believes America is an exceptional country because of her form of government, which is by the governed and constituted to protect the rights of all.  Fe understands and respects America's foundational ideas and holds that it is our civic responsibility to work towards the greater good to protect them.

When it comes to public policy, in ranking order, Fe is most passionate about 1) ending the dehumanizing and divisive practice of classifying/grouping individuals based on the color of their skin (i.e. defunding the National Advisory Committee to the Census Bureau as well as Directive 15), 2) decreasing the size of federal employee ranks, 3) demolishing the Department of Education, 4) dismantling the IRS, and 5) repealing the 17th Amendment.  Fe values all life, is pro 2nd Amendment,  and pro legal immigration - she believes in limited government that will not interfere with or circumvent our God-given freedoms and inalienable rights.  Fe is a true American, Conservative, Patriot, and woman of faith.  We learned that Fe is Spanish for Faith and Feliz means happiness; together Fe Liza is faith and happiness - two attributes that Fe absolutely exemplifies.  We were blessed to meet her and believe she will make a great addition to the Houston ISD board!