Numerous Black authors have watched as right-wing leaders ban their books from libraries and classrooms across the country, and in Texas, a state rep has launched an investigation targeting hundreds of titles. One book of the books on the list is Class Act by Jerry Craft. Craft sat down with us to discuss book banning, the impact of classroom censorship on his work, public school students, and the community as a whole. […]
Education
With a public school enrollment of more than 5 million, Texas has an increasingly diverse public education system. Unfortunately, that public education system is also the target of politicians seeking to privatize our neighborhood public schools and push a culture-war agenda in the classroom.
To that end, the Texas Freedom Network – while continuing to fight private school voucher legislation at the Capitol – has conducted groundbreaking research into what is being taught in classrooms on subjects like sex education and religion.
Resources
Broken Promises: Charter Schools in Texas (2000 report)
Broken Promises II (2001 report)
The State Board of Education: Dragging Texas Schools into the Culture Wars (2008 report)
Just Say Don’t Know: Sex Education in Texas Public Schools (2009 report)
Sex Education in Public Schools: Progress in the Lone Star State (2011 report)
Reading Writing & Religion: Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools (2006 report)
Reading, Writing & Religion II (2013 report)
Can This Class Be Saved? The ‘Hobby Lobby’ Public School Bible Curriculum (2014 report)
TFN Statement on Gov. Abbott’s Hypocritical ‘Parental Bill of Rights’
Governor Greg Abbott is scheduled today to speak in the Rio Grande Valley about his proposed bill he titled “Parental Bill of Rights.” […]
TFN President Calls for Removal of Conspiracy Theorist From Key Texas Curriculum Panel
Texas Freedom Network President Val Benavidez today called for the State Board of Education to withdraw the appointment of a conspiracy theorist to a key panel advising the board on what millions of Texas children should learn in Texas public schools. […]
Is the SBOE Bringing the Circus to Town Again?
The Texas State Board of Education will rewrite state standards for history, government and other social studies courses this year. The last time this happened, in 2010, the whole process became — to put it bluntly — a circus. It embarrassed Texas before the eyes of the country and the world. That year, the board made hundreds of changes, often based not on facts but on personal political beliefs. The result is a set of standards that have been panned even by conservative think tanks as a “politicized distortion of history” that downplayed slavery as the cause of the Civil War, dismissed the separation of church and state, portrayed civil rights gains as having negative consequences, and much more. […]
Stop Using MLK to Whitewash our History
As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, the words “I have a Dream” come to mind. But in 2022, with the current Texas political climate, it’s critical that we remember all of Dr. King’s teachings and that his “dream” included ending white supremacy by seeking systemic change. […]
