Teaching Texas' 5.5 Million Children—While Avoiding Who They Are
by
Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
December 31, 2025
What is arguably already taking shape in Texas is an “avoidance curriculum”—one that seeks to evade the difficult truths of history by structuring out critical discourse, critical thought and, as a consequence, pedagogy itself. This reality begs a deeper question: Why do far-right conservatives exhibit such deep-seated shame about their own history? And why must everyone else—most especially our public school children and youth—bear the consequences of this willful ignorance through a curriculum that avoids, rather than confronts, the complexities and painful truths of history?
Reporting by Isaac Yu in the Austin American-Statesman on December 30 underscores a familiar and troubling pattern in Texas education policy: once again, communities of color and women risk being sidelined in the stories our children are taught to value. As the state undertakes a sweeping rewrite of its social studies standards—standards that will shape lesson plans, textbooks, and assessments for 5.5 million students—the process has become mired in political conflict over slavery, civil rights, Indigenous histories, and whose experiences are deemed central.
The rewrite is being steered primarily by the Texas State Board of Education, with support from the Texas Education Agency under Commissioner Mike Morath. Yet the advisory structure raises red flags: among nine content advisors, only one appears to have experience in Texas public schools, while several are conservative activists. Hence, not at all diverse. This imbalance matters because it produces predictable gaps, silences, and biases in what is included—and excluded—from the curriculum. Curriculum decisions are never neutral; they reflect values, power, and determinations about whose knowledge is considered legitimate.
Early signals from the new “comprehensive” framework suggest a narrowing of perspective—boosting Texas history while eliminating standalone world cultures courses and delaying sustained engagement with nonwhite histories until later grades. As Yu's story recounts, SBOE member Staci Childs poignantly asks, when do students who “look like me” get to see themselves in the curriculum?
Sadly, this shouldn't even be a question in the first place. That said, representation of women and people of color in the curriculum is the central question, especially considering Texas' rapidly changing demographics, as reported by the Texas Education Agency (2024).
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Of the roughly 5.5 million children enrolled in Texas public schools, the majority are students of color. According to the most recent enrollment data from the Texas Education Agency, Latina/o/x students make up just over half of the total population—about 53 percent, or approximately 2.9 million children. This makes Latina/o/x students not only the largest racial or ethnic group in Texas schools, but the "demographic center" of the system, if you will.
White students account for about 24 percent of public school enrollment, totaling roughly 1.3 million students. Black students represent about 13 percent, or approximately 720,000 children statewide. Asian students make up about 5 percent of enrollment, numbering roughly 275,000 students. Native American (American Indian/Alaska Native) students comprise less than 1 percent of the total—close to 55,000 children across the state.
In other words, nearly three out of every four students in Texas public schools are students of color. This demographic reality stands in sharp contrast to ongoing curriculum debates that risk narrowing historical representation, raising fundamental questions about whose histories, identities, and contributions are centered—and whose are deferred or diminished—in the education of Texas’ children.
Texas has time—final standards are slated for classrooms in 2030—but time alone will not ensure equity. Representation is not an add-on. It is foundational to civic understanding and belonging. If this rewrite proceeds without meaningful inclusion of scholars, teachers, and communities who reflect Texas’ full diversity, we risk entrenching an avoidance curriculum that tells far too many students that their histories—and by extension, their lives—do not actually matter in the story of our nation’s grand American narrative.
Texas is overhauling what students will learn in social studies and history. Here's what to know
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People demonstrate Monday, Aug. 1, 2022, at the William B. Travis Building in Austin over the need for expansive and diverse social studies curriculum.William Luther, Staff Photographer / Staff photographer |
A rewrite of Texas’ social studies curriculum is underway, with lawmakers, teachers and history enthusiasts at odds over exactly how to present the history of Texas and the United States to the state’s 5.5 million public school students.
State education officials regularly review and revamp standards for all subjects. But the social studies rewrite in particular has become a thorny political process, with lawmakers clashing over the portrayal of slavery, civil rights, Indigenous people, the Alamo and other subjects.
The process will ultimately result in new state standards, known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which form the basis of classroom teachers’ lesson plans, future textbook editions and the new iteration of the standardized STAAR test.
Here’s what you need to know:
Who is writing the new curriculum?
The task of rewriting the curriculum is largely delegated to the 15-member State Board of Education, whose members are elected by voters. Currently, the board is made up of 10 Republicans and 5 Democrats. The Texas Education Agency, led by Commissioner Mike Morath, also provides assistance.
Teachers, educators, and members of the public from across Texas are also asked to provide input through several working groups convened by TEA, though those have yet to be formed.
State board members have also appointed nine content advisors to help guide the curriculum. They include several conservative Christian activists as well as the recently-ousted CEO of the Alamo Trust. Only one of the nine advisors appears to have experience working in a Texas public school.
Once the work groups form a draft curriculum, which is expected in January, the state board of education has a chance to amend and debate it before providing final sign-off in June.
Why is Texas' social studies curriculum being overhauled now?
All state standards are reviewed by the State Board approximately every 15 to 20 years. The reviews can result in small or significant revisions.
The social studies standards were last scheduled to be reviewed in 2022. Working groups met over the course of nearly a year to draft the new state standards.
READ MORE: State board scraps new Texas social studies guidelines as critics decry ‘wokeness,’ LGBT themes
But once the drafts reached the state board, members began clashing over certain hot-button topics, with the most conservative members claiming the curriculum had been infused with “wokeness” and LGBT themes.
Those tensions derailed the negotiations, and the board ultimately scrapped the drafts and voted to start fresh three years later.
What changes are being made?
The state board has not yet released draft curriculum. But earlier this year, members agreed to a new framework that will determine which broad topics are introduced for grades 3-8.
The new framework, known as the “comprehensive” model, introduces a novel chronological approach to history and signals that the process will result in drastically different new standards. The model, favored by conservatives on the board, boosts the proportion of Texas history, and removes standalone world cultures courses. Third grade will now begin with “birth of Western civilizations” and eighth grade will become a Texas history-only capstone course.
Democrats on the board say the new framework reduces representation, will be more difficult for teachers to explain and delays lessons about nonwhite people to later grades.
“Looking at this storytelling thing, when do people that look like me, get to learn about themselves before the fifth grade?” said Staci Childs, D-Houston, pointing to herself and other Black or Hispanic members of the board.
The standards are also being revised to align with recently-passed state law that requires students to be taught about the perils of communism.
The law says students must learn about "atrocities attributable to communist regimes," including the Cambodian genocide, guerilla movements in Latin America and the "oppression and suffering experienced by people living under communist regimes." The lessons must also touch on modern threats posed to the U.S. and its allies by communist regimes and ideologies.
When will the new curriculum take effect?
The full standards will enter classrooms in the fall of 2030, according to the board’s most recently-approved timeline. They will apply to both traditional public and open-enrollment charter schools.
The communism provisions, however, were written by lawmakers outside of the typical review cycle and will be incorporated during the 2026-2027 school year.
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