Your April SBOE Rundown
Texas Freedom Network, our Teach the Truth coalition, Texas Rising students, and other education advocates organized a strong, unified voice in support of truthful, inclusive public education at last week’s State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting. Despite this, the Republican-dominated board did what it does best: ignored what students, families, and educators actually need and put their politics and ideology first.
It’s not all bad news… but a lot of it is. They gave preliminary approval to deeply flawed drafts of proposed new social studies standards that will guide what millions of students learn in the state’s public schools. They also approved a revised required statewide reading list that, while better than the first version, still includes Bible passages.
A Powerful Showing by Community Advocates 
Hundreds of parents, students, and other Texans signed up to testify at a Tuesday public hearing on the social studies drafts and the proposed statewide reading list that would force public school students, regardless of their religious beliefs, to study Bible stories in their language arts classes. Far-right board members treated many testifiers with barely concealed contempt during the hearing, which stretched well past midnight.
But advocates for teaching the truth and keeping right-wing religious and political agendas out of public schools made our voices heard, garnering statewide, national, and even international media coverage.
“The Bible isn’t a history book, public school isn’t Sunday school, and ignorance is not a Texas value,” TFN President Felicia Martin told ralliers gathered outside the building where the SBOE was meeting.
Republicans Ram Through Flawed Social Studies Standards
During the four-day meeting, the board’s far-right majority fixed virtually none of the flaws in the social studies standards that TFN and other advocates have been sounding the alarm about for months. In some ways, they just made things even worse. Strap in.
➤ Western Bias: Shaped by a panel of SBOE-appointed “content advisors” dominated by right-wing political figures and ideologues, the social studies drafts would radically refocus learning on “Western civilization,” especially the U.S. and Texas. They treat the rest of the world outside Europe almost like a sideshow students don’t need to learn much about.
A majority of board members largely stayed the course last week, fighting off efforts to increase students’ understanding of the broader world and different perspectives. Cultivating this kind of ignorance will put Texas students at a huge disadvantage when they one day must compete with students educated in other states.
➤ Religious Freedom (or Lack Thereof): The draft standards teach almost nothing about the world’s major religions other than Christianity and Judaism until high school, and then mostly in passing. In contrast, they repeatedly address the history and teachings of Christianity, beginning in the earliest grades, and require students across grades and courses to make connections to Bible stories.
Far-right board members and their supporters doubled down on this approach during the meeting. They demanded that the standards portray the United States as founded on Christianity and the Bible. Some even denounced the separation of church and state as “communist.”
They also dismissed or viciously attacked other faith traditions, especially Islam. As debate dragged on into the early morning hours of Friday, two board members even tried to require that public schools teach students that Islam – with 2 billion followers around the world, including in our classrooms – is a false, violent religion. Even though that proposal failed, the message in the draft standards approved on Friday seemed clear: non-Christian beliefs are not to be tolerated.
➤ Equality and Civil Rights: Many board members were reluctant to teach students the truth about the struggle for equality and civil rights in America. For example, the board refused to remove language in the drafts echoing the Lost Cause myth, which falsely claims the Confederacy’s cause was focused on “states’ rights,” rather than primarily on slavery. Republican board members also rejected a proposal to teach students about two landmark civil rights court cases that struck down bans on interracial and same-sex marriages.
SBOE Passes a Less-Terrible Reading List
In a mix of good and bad news, the board also gave preliminary approval to a new required statewide reading list.
The good news is that the approved list is far shorter than the original, giving teachers the flexibility to choose other literary works that are most appropriate for their particular students. The bad news is that it would still require students to study Bible stories. This clearly puts religious freedom at risk by undermining the right of parents to direct the religious education of their own children.
What’s Next
The state board plans to vote on final approval for the proposed social studies standards and required reading list at its June meeting. We’ll keep you updated.
To those of you who turned out last Tuesday to testify and rally, and those who watched the livestream and contacted the board virtually, THANK YOU. It was a long, difficult day, but we at TFN take heart in knowing that so many Texans are on the right side of history with us.
And if you made it this far in this recap, THANK YOU. We know it’s a long one, but a lot happened, and we’re dedicated to keeping you in the loop on the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Now, rest up so that you’re ready to keep the fight for quality education going, and be sure to talk with your friends and family about the State Board of Education, why its work matters, and, most importantly, how they can join you in getting involved. We won’t stop fighting until every student has access to the quality, truthful education they deserve.
