When ‘Judeo-Christian’ Means Christian: The Texas State Board of Education and the Politics of Curriculum, by Angela Valenzuel, Ph.D.

When ‘Judeo-Christian’ Means Christian: The Texas State Board of Education and the Politics of Curriculum

by

Angela Valenzuela, PH.D.

June 26, 2026

Please read Ellie Ashby and Chloe Landen’s important Texas Tribune/Religion News Service article, “As supporters praise Texas’ proposed “Judeo-Christian” curriculum, rabbis say it dismisses Judaism” posted below. The piece reports on this week’s State Board of Education hearings over proposed changes that would require Texas public school students to read Bible stories and passages as part of a statewide reading list. Supporters repeatedly invoked the phrase “Judeo-Christian values” to defend the proposal, claiming that such readings simply acknowledge the nation’s religious and moral origins.

Yet the testimony from rabbis and Jewish leaders revealed something much more troubling: the term “Judeo-Christian” is doing ideological work. It is not functioning as an inclusive recognition of Judaism. It is functioning as cover.

As Ashby and Landen report, Jewish leaders criticized the proposed biblical selections as overwhelmingly Christian in framing, translation, and interpretation. Rabbi Joshua Fixler of Houston’s Congregation Emanu El captured the problem with painful clarity when he described the use of “Judeo-Christian” as “a fig leaf at inclusion.” In other words, Judaism is being rhetorically invoked in order to make a Christian-centered curriculum appear broader, more ecumenical, and more constitutionally palatable than it actually is.

This is precisely the fiction behind the concept of “Judeo-Christian.” The phrase sounds generous. It sounds like partnership. It sounds like interfaith harmony. But historically and politically, it has often served to absorb Judaism into a Christian civilizational story while excluding Muslims, secular people, Indigenous spiritual traditions, and the many other religious and nonreligious communities that make up our society. It is a phrase that points at pluralism while narrowing the public imagination.

Robert O. Smith, associate professor at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, usefully reminds us that the term “Judeo-Christian” was popularized during the Cold War as part of a U.S. civilizational narrative that joined Protestants, Catholics, and Jews against supposedly “godless” enemies abroad, while excluding Muslims and others from the nation’s moral imagination (Ashby & Landen, 2026).

In this sense, “Judeo-Christian” is less a neutral description of shared religious heritage than a political construction. If anything, a Protestant or more specifically—Christian nationalist—reading of the Bible often subtracts from Jesus’ Jewishness by lifting him out of the Jewish world that formed him. 

Were this not so, Christians would more fully acknowledge the Jewish festivals, practices, scriptures, and interpretive traditions embedded throughout the New Testament, rather than glossing over them—or treating them as mere background to an otherwise Christian story. The irony is that those who invoke “Judeo-Christian values” often do so in ways that diminish Judaism itself, using Jewishness symbolically while centering a distinctly Christian interpretation of scripture, history, and nationhood.

This is why the Texas debate matters far beyond the reading list itself. What is at stake is not simply whether students should learn about religion. Of course students should learn about religion, history, literature, culture, and the many traditions that have shaped human life. Religious literacy has a legitimate place in public education. But there is a profound difference between teaching about religion and using public schools to advance a particular religious worldview.

The proposed Texas reading list crosses that line. As the article notes, many of the selected passages draw from Christian translations and interpretations, with Jewish texts treated thinly, awkwardly, or in ways that Jewish leaders themselves find troubling. Particularly alarming is the proposed pairing of Lamentations 3 with Holocaust literature, a pairing that rabbis warned could invite students to consider whether the Holocaust was divine punishment for Jews. Whether born of ignorance or intent, such a curricular choice is pedagogically irresponsible and morally dangerous.

This is how Christian nationalism enters the classroom: not always through an explicit declaration that Christianity should rule, but through curricular choices that quietly normalize one religious tradition as the foundation of American identity. It happens when “heritage” becomes a substitute for historical accuracy. It happens when “values” becomes a code word for exclusion. It happens when public schools are asked to carry theological assumptions that belong in families, congregations, seminaries, and houses of worship—not in state-mandated curriculum.

Texas is home to more than 5.5 million public school students. They are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Indigenous, secular, questioning, and more. They come from families with deep faith commitments and from families with none. A public school curriculum worthy of them must not narrow their world. It must broaden it.

Moreover, those adhering to traditional Protestant faiths—that are themselves diverse—should be just as concerned. A state-mandated curriculum that instrumentalizes the Bible for nationalist purposes does not honor Christianity; it distorts it. It reduces scripture to a civic ornament and treats faith as a tool of political formation rather than as a living moral and spiritual tradition. For Christians who take seriously the prophetic tradition and the separation of church and state that protects all faith communities, this should be deeply troubling.

That is why this debate is also about democracy. Public schools belong to the public. They should not be used to launder sectarian politics through the language of tradition. Nor should Jewish communities be conscripted into legitimizing a Christian-centered project that many Jewish leaders explicitly reject.

The phrase “Judeo-Christian” may sound inclusive, but in this context, it conceals more than it reveals. It masks power. It rewrites Jewish experience. It excludes whole communities from the story of Texas and the nation. And it asks public schools to do the work of religious formation under the banner of civic education.

The Texas State Board of Education had already given preliminary approval to the contested mandatory reading list that includes Bible passages, with final adoption scheduled for today, June 26, 2026 (Vertuno & Stengle, 2026). The proposal, if finally approved, would take effect in 2030 and would make Texas a national outlier in requiring a state-mandated reading list that includes biblical passages in public school instruction.

Texas students deserve better. They deserve honest history, constitutional fidelity, and a curriculum that respects the full diversity of our state. They deserve to learn about religion without being taught religion. They deserve schools that cultivate understanding rather than impose belonging on sectarian terms. They should also actually be taught the origins of so-called "Judeo-Christianity."

And above all, they deserve leaders who understand that pluralism is not a slogan. It is a democratic obligation.

References

Ashby, E. & Landen, C. (2026, June 25). As supporters praise Texas’ proposed “Judeo-Christian” curriculum, rabbis say it dismisses Judaism. Texas Tribune/Religion News Service. 

Vertuno, J. & Stengle, J. (2026, June 26). Texas school board to vote on required Bible readings in public education, Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/texas-curriculum-bible-board-vote-06530403ff91c10462382422003e109f

As supporters praise Texas’ proposed “Judeo-Christian” curriculum, rabbis say it dismisses Judaism
A required reading list before the State Board of Education would present a predominantly Christian perspective to public school students, Jewish leaders say.

By Ellie Ashby, The Texas Tribune, and Chloe Landen, Religion News ServiceJune 25, 2026, 5:00 a.m. Central

Rabbi Joshua Fixler speaks at the State Board of Education meeting in Austin on Monday, 

June 22, 2026. Fixler argued that the required reading list is full of Christians texts that are 

inappropriate for public school classrooms. Aiden Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune

The Vanderbilt Report and the Manufacture of Suspicion Toward the Humanities, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

The Vanderbilt Report and the Manufacture of Suspicion Toward the Humanities

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

June 25, 2026

View Report Here.

The controversy over the Vanderbilt/Washington University report on the humanities (Boghossian et al., 2026) should concern all of us who care about higher education, academic freedom, and the democratic purpose of universities. Presented as a sober defense of rigor, objectivity, and scholarly standards, the report has instead become a flashpoint in the larger struggle over who gets to define legitimate knowledge in the academy (luckyuston@gmail.com, 2026). 

At a time when humanities departments, ethnic studies, gender studies, and other justice-oriented fields are already under political attack, the report risks doing more than diagnosing a problem. It risks furnishing a vocabulary for administrative scrutiny, budgetary austerity, and ideological policing.

This is why Dwight A. McBride’s (2026) critique is so important. He asks us to consider whether the report’s anxiety about “politicized” scholarship is really anxiety about a changing academy—one in which women, scholars of color, queer scholars, Indigenous scholars, and scholars from historically excluded communities are asking questions that earlier generations either ignored or suppressed.

The irony is also evident to me in light of a face-to-face conversation I once had with Dr. Randy Diehl, a former dean of the University of Texas College of Liberal Arts. He shared that he regarded much of the work in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies as cutting-edge—a characterization that, in my view, extends equally to African American and African Diaspora Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. These are precisely the critical humanities fields now under attack. My, how things have changed.

In any case, McBride’s central question is clarifying: what if the academy did not become less scholarly when it became more diverse? What if it became more intellectually honest because new scholars brought new archives, new methods, new communities, and new moral urgencies into view (McBride, 2026)?

The report appears to rely on a nostalgic idea of the university as a place where knowledge once existed above politics, untouched by power. But that imagined university was never neutral. It was a university structured by exclusion—by who was admitted, who was hired, whose work was cited, whose languages counted, whose communities were studied, and whose experiences were dismissed as particular, emotional, or political. Fields such as Black studies, ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, queer studies, Indigenous studies, and postcolonial studies did not emerge as departures from scholarship. They emerged because scholarship had failed to ask whole categories of questions about power, empire, race, gender, labor, sexuality, land, and inequality.

To cast these fields as inherently suspect because they engage social justice is to confuse subject matter with scholarly failure. There is poor scholarship in every field, including fields that describe themselves as neutral, empirical, classical, or objective. But serious inquiry into racism, colonialism, sexism, inequality, or state violence is not automatically activism masquerading as scholarship. Often, it is simply scholarship refusing to avert its gaze.

The danger is not merely intellectual. The report is addressed to university leaders, and it arrives in a political climate where administrators and governing boards are already being pressured to discipline faculty, reorganize departments, restrict curriculum, and eliminate programs deemed too critical or too “political.” This is especially alarming in states like Texas and Florida, where anti-DEI laws, attacks on shared governance, and efforts to narrow the curriculum have already reshaped higher education. In such a context, even a report that claims to oppose external political interference can become useful to those who seek precisely that interference.

A report on the humanities that truly centered rigor would begin with humility. It would ask whether its own evidence is sufficient for its claims. It would engage the scholars and fields it criticizes in good faith. It would distinguish between advocacy, public scholarship, community accountability, and poor method. It would recognize that the humanities have always been contested because meaning, memory, culture, language, and history are themselves contested terrains.

Instead, the Vanderbilt/Washington University report risks laundering a political anxiety through the language of standards. It treats the diversification of questions as a decline in quality. It treats scholarship attentive to power as evidence of ideological capture. It treats the old exclusions of the academy as if they were signs of intellectual purity.

The humanities do not need to be rescued from scholars who study justice. They need to be protected from those who mistake justice-oriented inquiry for intellectual corruption. The real crisis is not that the humanities have become too political. The real crisis is that, at the very moment when democracy needs deeper historical memory, ethical imagination, cultural understanding, and critical thought, powerful actors are working to narrow what can be studied, taught, funded, and known.

That is why this report matters. Not because it settles anything, but because it reveals the terms of the struggle before us. The question is not whether scholarship should be rigorous. Of course it should. The question is who gets to decide what rigor means—and whether rigor will be used to deepen democratic inquiry or to silence the very fields that have helped us understand democracy’s unfinished promises.

References

Boghossian, P., Appiah, K. A., Fine, K., Henrich, J., Fleming, K. E., Merchant, J., Morson, G. S., Rosen, G., Rubin, A., & Wilentz, S. (2026, April 5). Report on the state of scholarship in the humanities and the humanistic social sciences. https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-wpfsx/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2026/06/State-of-Scholarship_Report_Final.pdf

luckyuston@gmail.com. (2026, June 11). The Vanderbilt report: A flashpoint in the battle for the humanities, Chronicle Beat. https://chroniclebeat.com/the-vanderbilt-report-a-flashpoint-in-the-battle-for-the-humanities/

McBride, D. A. (2026, June 15). The question haunting that humanities report,  Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2026/06/15/question-haunting-vanderbiltwash-u-report-opinion

Texas Is Legislating Growth on a Drying Planet—and the $174 Billion Bill for Texas’ Growth Machine Is Coming Due, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Texas Is Legislating Growth on a Drying Planet—and the $174 Billion Bill for Texas’ Growth Machine Is 

Coming Due

by 

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

June 24, 2026

Chris Tomlinson’s recent column posted below, “Texas is running out of cheap water, and will need to make salty water sweet,” should land like an alarm bell across the state. His central point is simple and sobering: Texas is outgrowing its freshwater supply. Population growth, drought, fracking, semiconductor production, data centers, and the vast water needs of artificial intelligence are converging into a crisis that can no longer be deferred.

Link to PDF here

According to the Texas Water Development Board’s Draft 2027 State WaterPlan, implementing the recommended water management strategies is estimated to cost $174 billion, more than double the $81 billion estimated in the 2022 plan (Texas Water Development Board, 2026, p. 28). That number should stop us in our tracks. It tells us that the old bargain—grow endlessly, build endlessly, extract endlessly, and assume water will somehow be there—is breaking down.

Tomlinson rightly points to Corpus Christi as the canary in the coal mine. There, the city’s surface water supplies are running low, new groundwater wells have not delivered as hoped, and desalination remains expensive. 

Meanwhile, the endless drive to attract industry is increasingly ill advised, stretching the water supply beyond what residents can reasonably bear. The result is a familiar Texas pattern: public resources get promised to private growth, and ordinary people are left to pay the bill.

This is where the water crisis becomes more than an infrastructure problem. It is a democracy problem. Who gets to decide how much growth is too much? Who benefits from water-intensive development? Who pays when systems fail? Who is asked to conserve while industries expand? And whose communities are treated as sacrifice zones in the name of “economic development”?

These questions echo themes I have raised in other posts about the Hot Earth, climate disruption, and the extractive logic that governs so much of our public policy. Climate change is not some distant abstraction. It is arriving through heat, drought, flood, fire, migration, insurance costs, utility bills, and water scarcity. It is arriving through the quiet violence of unaffordability. It is arriving through the realization that the poor, the elderly, rural communities, and working families will be the first to experience what policymakers long treated as someone else’s future.

Tomlinson’s column is especially important because it pierces the illusion of cheapness. Texas has “run out of cheap water,” as Sen. Charles Perry put it. That statement deserves our full attention. Cheap water was never really cheap. It was subsidized by aquifers, rivers, ecosystems, Indigenous dispossession, rural extraction, underpriced infrastructure, and future generations who were never asked for consent. Now the bill is coming due.

Desalination may become part of the state’s water future, but it is not a magic wand. Making salty water sweet requires enormous energy. It also produces concentrated brine that must be handled carefully to avoid serious environmental harm. If desalination becomes another excuse for unrestrained growth, we will have learned nothing. We will simply be using more energy to solve the water crisis while worsening the climate crisis that intensifies drought in the first place.

The same concern applies to artificial intelligence and data centers. As I have written elsewhere in reflecting on AI and extraction, artificial intelligence is not weightless. It is not merely “in the cloud.” It is physical infrastructure: land, water, energy, minerals, labor, servers, cooling systems, and communities asked to absorb the costs. The language of innovation often hides the material reality of extraction. In Texas, that reality is becoming increasingly visible as rural communities confront large-scale data centers that demand huge amounts of water and electricity.

It is telling that even Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has called for a moratorium on new data centers, warning that rural communities that have conserved water and land for generations are now being asked to compete with corporate giants whose demands could overwhelm local resources. 

That alone should widen the conversation beyond partisan politics. This is not simply a left-right issue; it is a question of stewardship, fairness, and whether Texas will protect the communities that have long sustained the state before handing scarce resources over to the highest bidder.

Water also forces us to rethink what we mean by prosperity. For too long, Texas leaders have equated growth with success. More highways. More subdivisions. More warehouses. More data centers. More fossil fuel extraction. More tax incentives. More ribbon cuttings. But growth without ecological limits is not prosperity. It is debt. It is risk. It is a form of policy denial.

And as with so many policy debates in Texas, inequality sits at the center. Wealthier households will absorb higher water rates more easily. Poor and working-class families will not. Rural communities may see their aquifers strained by development they did not invite. Colonias and historically underserved communities may face the worst infrastructure deficits. Urban residents may be told to conserve while industry receives favorable treatment. This is how environmental crisis becomes social crisis.

We should be deeply concerned that Texas is discussing water scarcity largely as an engineering challenge rather than a justice challenge. Pipes matter. Treatment plants matter. Desalination facilities may matter. But governance matters, too. Public voice matters. Conservation matters. Climate policy matters. Land-use planning matters. Accountability matters. Without these, water policy will reproduce the very inequities that brought us here.

The Legislature will have to confront this in 2027. But Texans should not wait for lawmakers to frame the issue for us. We need a broader public conversation now—one that includes educators, scientists, farmers, Indigenous communities, rural residents, environmental advocates, labor, students, and families already struggling with the cost of living.

Water is life. It is also memory, land, culture, food, health, and public trust. It is the connective tissue of ecology and democracy.

Texas can still choose a different path. We can invest in infrastructure, conservation, reuse, repair, and fair pricing. We can scrutinize water-intensive industries before granting them public support. We can protect communities from being overrun by extractive development. We can treat climate disruption as real rather than optional. We can insist that economic development serve the public good rather than private accumulation alone.

But we cannot keep pretending that endless growth is compatible with finite water.

Tomlinson’s column is a warning. Corpus Christi is a warning. The draft State Water Plan is a warning. The Hot Earth is warning us, too.

The question is whether Texas will listen before scarcity becomes policy, before crisis becomes normal, and before ordinary Texans are told—once again—that there is no alternative but to pay for decisions they did not make.

References

Texas Water Development Board. (2026). 2027 state water plan: Draft, phase 1. https://www.twdb.texas.gov/waterplanning/swp/2027/docs/DraftSWP27-Water-For-Texas.pdf

Tomlinson, C. (2026, May 21). Texas is running out of cheap water, and will need to make salty water sweet. Houston Chronicle. 

Texas is running out of cheap water, and will need to make salty water sweet

Texas faces a costly water crisis as growth, drought and industry outpace freshwater supplies statewide, writes columnist Chris Tomlinson.

By Chris Tomlinson,ColumnistMay 21, 2026

Texas is outgrowing its freshwater supply.

Communities across the state need billions of gallons more water for growing populations and thirsty industries like oil and gas fracking, computer chip etching and artificial thinking. What happens this summer in Corpus Christi is a sign of what’s coming for all Texans.

The price of creating freshwater and keeping the economy growing will leave consumers with sticker shock, state lawmakers recently acknowledged. A draft of the 2027 State Water Plan says Texas will need to spend $174 billion to meet the water needs of the next 50 years — twice as much as lawmakers estimated just four years ago.

“The taxpayer is going to pay for this stuff one way or the other, be it property tax or be it fees, or be it insurance cost increases,” state Sen. Charles Perry, chairman of the Senate Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, said during a hearing last week. “There is no free lunch here, or if they don’t pay, we end up with a Third World state.”

Inconvenient truths

Lawmakers will need to have “a big conversation” when they gather in Austin next year, Perry predicted. The level-headed Lubbock Republican is not prone to hyperbole or known for rhetorical flourish. When he speaks up, Texans best listen up.

Droughts and floods have complicated life in Texas for eons. The population and economy only began to grow once people started damming rivers and drilling into aquifers. But experts say those water sources are insufficient for a growing state.

Corpus Christi is the canary in our coal mine. The city’s surface water supplies are running low, new groundwater wells have disappointed, and citizens can’t afford to make seawater drinkable.

In the City Council’s drive to attract industry and bring in new jobs and revenue, it stretched the water supply too thin. Now that the inevitable drought has arrived, the council will likely declare an emergency and impose strict rationing.

Experts told the Senate committee on May 11 that while 57% of city-owned water utilities say they have long-term plans with sufficient funding, 10% have no plan, and 43% do not have enough money.

This year was the first time the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas fell short, capable of providing only $1.28 billion of the $4.2 billion that water utilities requested. The Legislature created the fund 11 years ago to help local authorities pay for water projects.

The Texas Water Development Board, which administers the fund, rejected the Nueces River Authority’s request for help financing a Corpus Christi desalination plant, claiming it had to prioritize other projects. 

Statewide, Texas doesn’t know where it will find 10 million to 12 million acre-feet of the 17 million the state will need over the next 50 years, Perry warned (an acre-foot is about 325,000 gallons). Making existing water treatment plants and pipelines more efficient will only meet 3% of the need.

“If I have to pick between spending all of my dollars on leaky pipes or all my dollars on supply, I will pick supply every day,” Perry said.

Water users will need a lot of dollars.

Well runs dry

Producing drinking water from ground or surface sources typically costs between $1.10 to $4.30 per 1,000 gallons, according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office. Desalination costs range from $7.50 to $11 per 1,000 gallons.

“Everyone in the audience is going to say, ‘That’s too much, that’s double what we’re paying,’” Perry said. “But that’s the cost of new water in Texas … we have run out of the cheap water.”

If Texans will pay those rates, utilities will deliver. Companies are working to permit three seawater desalination plants, with state officials anticipating seven plants along the coast over the next decade.

Arid nations around the world use desalination, but in addition to requiring a lot of energy, they produce a brine that is twice as salty as the water going in. If the waste stream isn’t handled properly, it can cause severe environmental problems.

Critics question the wisdom of trying to grow Texas beyond what its natural resources can sustain. Community activists want to prioritize residents’ quality of life over industrial development, and environmentalists want conservation over development.

Sid Miller, the Republican agriculture commissioner, called for a moratorium on data centers to conserve water.

“They draw massive volumes of water for cooling, even amid ongoing drought,” Miller wrote in a press release on Monday. “Rural communities that have conserved resources for generations now compete with corporate giants.”

Should a higher power grant South Texans' prayers and bring a week or more of steady rain, a heaven-sent storm will not solve the state’s long-term water shortage. We’ll still need to turn salty water sweet.

“We have a lot of poor people that aren’t going to be able to live in Texas much longer if we don’t figure this out, and there needs to be a sense of urgency about it,” Perry warned. “The status quo has to break.”

Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at houstonchronicle.com/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter.

Chris Tomlinson

Business Columnist

Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas for Hearst Newspapers. He can be reached at ctomlinson@hearstcorp.com.

In 2025, Tomlinson was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, an honor society that recognizes distinctive literary achievement. In 2021, the Texas Association of Managing Editors awarded him columnist of the year, and the Headliners Foundation named him Texas's Star Opinion Writer. He’s authored two New York Times Bestsellers, “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth” and “Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name - One White, One Black.”

Before joining the Houston Chronicle in 2014, he spent 20 years with The Associated Press reporting on politics, economics, conflicts and natural disasters from more than 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

With Gratitude: Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas Reaches 10 Million Pageviews [in English and Spanish]

[English/ Inglés]

With Gratitude: Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas Reaches 10 Million Pageviews

Friends,

The count from this afternoon

I am deeply grateful to share that Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texashas now passed 10,000,000 pageviews—the blog’s primary metric of readership and reach.

When I began this blog 22 years ago—after running a listserv for 7 years—I could not have imagined the many ways this space would grow into a public archive, a policy resource, a site of reflection, and a community of readers committed to educational justice, democracy, equity, and the public good. Note: I welcome you to read an earlier post on why I blog. 

These 10 million pageviews represent far more than a number. They reflect years of collective concern, inquiry, struggle, hope, and commitment.

To my readers in Texas, across the United States, and around the world: thank you. For fun, here is a map of top visitor locations from the past 7 days—with most readers, of course, coming from the United States—albeit with a consistent and sizeable international readership.

This map obviously shifts from week-to-week, depending on the topics I am addressing.

Thank you for reading, sharing, teaching, questioning, organizing, and returning to this space over the years. Your engagement has sustained this work and reminded me that public scholarship matters—especially in times when truth, history, education, and democracy itself are under pressure.

I offer this milestone with humility and gratitude. May this blog continue to serve as a resource for educators, students, parents, advocates, scholars, policymakers, and communities everywhere who believe that education should be rooted in dignity, justice, and love.

With abundant thanks and gratitude,

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

                                                                                                    [Spanish/ Español]

Con gratitud: 10 millones de visitas para Equidad educativa, política y políticas públicas en Texas

Amigas y Amigos:

Me siento profundamente agradecida de compartir que Equidad educativa, política y políticas públicas en Texas. ha superado ya los 10,000,000 de visitas, la principal métrica de lectoría y alcance del blog.

Cuando comencé este blog hace 22 años—después de haber administrado un listserv durante 7 años—no podría haber imaginado las muchas maneras en que este espacio llegaría a convertirse en un archivo público, un recurso de política pública, un sitio de reflexión y una comunidad de lectores comprometidos con la justicia educativa, la democracia, la equidad y el bien común. Nota: Les invito a leer un post anterior sobre por qué escribo en este blog. 

Estos 10 millones de visitas representan mucho más que una cifra. Reflejan años de preocupación colectiva, indagación, lucha, esperanza y compromiso.

A mis lectores en Texas, en todo Estados Unidos y alrededor del mundo: gracias. Por diversión, aquí comparto un mapa de las principales ubicaciones de visitantes durante los últimos 7 días—con la mayoría de los lectores, por supuesto, provenientes de Estados Unidos—aunque con un número considerable y constante de lectores internacionales.

Este mapa obviamente cambia de semana a semana, dependiendo de los temas que esté abordando. 

Gracias por leer, compartir, enseñar, cuestionar, organizarse y regresar a este espacio a lo largo de los años. Su participación ha sostenido este trabajo y me ha recordado que la labor académica pública importa, especialmente en tiempos en que la verdad, la historia, la educación y la propia democracia están bajo presión.

Comparto este logro con humildad y gratitud. Que este blog continúe sirviendo como recurso para educadores, estudiantes, madres y padres, defensores de causas sociales, académicos, responsables de políticas públicas y comunidades de todas partes que creen que la educación debe estar arraigada en la dignidad, la justicia y el amor.

Con profundo agradecimiento,

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Best University Watchdogs: Austin Students for a Democratic Society and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas

So very proud of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) and Austin SDS for leading on the fight for academic freedom, opposing censorship, and defending the right to learn and the right to teach. It's wonderful that they were recognized by the Austin Chronicle, too.

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D,


Best University Watchdogs

Austin Students for a Democratic Society and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas

It’s no secret that the University of Texas has continued to allow the polarizing ideology of the Republican Party to seep into the walls of the institution. But student organizers with the Austin chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), who have a front row seat to the right-wing tilt, aren’t afraid to hold UT leadership accountable. In May, SEAT organized a string of mock funerals for UT, UNT, Texas Tech, and academic freedom on those campuses, complete with a horse-drawn carriage toting books and ashes. Austin SDS was quick to march against the consolidation of ethnic studies departments and under-the-table compacts with the Trump administration, and consistently defends the rights of student protesters. Both student orgs aren’t afraid to head to the Capitol with their demands, and demonstrate anew why free speech is essential on our university campuses.

instagram.com/austin.sds

studentsengaged.org

Texas Social Studies Standards: The Billion-Dollar Curriculum Rewrite | 10 AM and 12 PM Press Conference Tomorrow, Monday, June 22, 2026

Follow @SocialstudiesAdvocate on Instagram

 Friends,

Tomorrow begins an important week at the Texas State Board of Education that meets from the 22nd-26th.

There will be two press conferences tomorrow morning. 

The first on is the following at 10 AM sponsored by the Latino Texas Policy Center. The second at 12PM is sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network. TFN will have a horse-drawn funeral procession for the death of religious freedom in Texas. 

I somehow don't have a notice on the second one, but I spoke yesterday with Executive Director Felicia Martin who said that there will be one at the noon hour.

Both press conferences take place at the Barbara Jordan State Office Building | 1601 N. Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78711. If you're in mourning regarding the loss of religious freedom, wear black.

All should care deeply about this as what gets decided this week will be etched in stone for the next 10 years. Read the LTPC's full policy analysis HERE. 

LATINO TEXAS POLICY CENTER 

MEDIA KIT Texas State Board of Education Social Studies TEKS Vote June 26, 2026

MEDIA CONTACT 

Natalie A. Sanchez-Lopez, M.P.P. Executive Director & CEO Latino Texas Policy Center Phone: 361-510-1365 Email: natalie@latinotexaspolicycenter.com Website: www.latinotexaspolicycenter.com

MEDIA ADVISORY 

What: Press Conference on the Hidden Financial Costs of the Proposed Texas Social Studies TEKS Revisions 

When: Monday, June 22, 2026 @ 10AM 

Where: Barbara Jordan State Office Building | 1601 N. Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78711 

Who Will Speak: 

• Natalie Sánchez-Lopez, Executive Director & CEO, Latino Texas Policy Center • Gustavo Reveles, Texas State Board of Education, District 1 • Marisa Perez-Diaz, Texas State Board of Education, District 3 • Zeph Capo, President, Texas AFT • Julia Brookins, American Historical Association 

Why: The State Board of Education is scheduled to take a final vote on June 26, 2026 regarding proposed K–12 Social Studies TEKS revisions. A new independent policy analysis commissioned by the Latino Texas Policy Center estimates implementation costs ranging from $811 million to more than $1.65 billion statewide. 

STORY AT-A-GLANCE 

Headline: New Analysis Finds Proposed Texas Social Studies Standards Could Cost Between $811 Million and $1.65 Billion 

Key News Peg: 

The Texas Education Agency's fiscal note states the proposed TEKS revisions will result in "no additional costs to the state." A new independent analysis finds substantial implementation costs would instead be borne by local school districts, taxpayers, educators, museums, and cultural institutions. 

Why This Matters: 

The proposed standards represent the most significant restructuring of Texas social studies curriculum in more than a decade. 

Major proposed changes include: 

• Moving Texas History from 4th grade to 8th grade • Replacing portions of existing World Cultures content • Introducing a new chronological K–8 history sequence • Integrating Biblical content throughout elementary grades • Requiring new instructional materials statewide 

POLICY ANALYSIS - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

The State Board of Education (SBOE) is undertaking a sweeping overhaul of social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for all grades K–12. What will be the costs from the proposed changes? Latinos and allies rightly identify the cost as barriers to academic success and future adult opportunities – resulting from reductions in historical integrity and inclusivity (their contributions), and overall education quality. 

The Texas Education Agency (TEA), which claims no additional financial costs to the state, does not account for the full cascade of downstream implementation costs. Millions of unfunded education costs that will affect school districts, teacher preparation and historic sites and cultural institutions. 

Read full policy analysis HERE 

KEY FINDINGS 

Estimated Statewide Costs 

Instructional Materials: $314M–$479M 

District Curriculum Development: $135M–$430M 

Teacher Retraining: $73M–$154M 

Projected Social Studies $85M–$215M 

Bluebonnet Development: 

STAAR Assessment Redesign: $14M–$36M 

Historic Sites and Museums: $14M–$44M 

Teacher Attrition and Replacement: $38M–$77M 

Potential Litigation: $5M–$50M+ 

TOTAL ESTIMATED COST: $811 Million–$1.65 Billion+ 

TOP FIVE REPORTER ANGLES 

1. The Hidden Cost Story: TEA says implementation costs are effectively zero. Independent researchers estimate costs exceeding $1 billion. 

2. Texas History Leaves Elementary School:Texas History moves from 4th grade through 8th grade, potentially affecting student learning and cultural identity formation. 

3. Impact on Museums and Historic Sites: Organizations such as The Alamo and LBJ Library anticipate reduced visitation and costly program redesigns. 

4. Teacher Readiness: Approximately 77,000 social studies teachers would be expected to implement a framework for which no existing preparation pipeline currently exists. 

5. Church-State Questions: The integration of Biblical content raises constitutional questions that legal scholars warn could generate future litigation 

FAST FACTS 

★ 77,000 Texas social studies teachers affected 

★ More than 6.3 million students impacted 

★ 1,020 Texas school districts affected 

★ More than $103 million already spent on Bluebonnet Learning development 

★ More than 595 districts have adopted portions of Bluebonnet Learning 

★ Final SBOE adoption vote scheduled for June 26, 2026 

SUGGESTED INTERVIEW SOURCES 

Economic Impact on Texas & Latino Community Perspective 

Natalie Sanchez-Lopez Executive Director & CEO of the Latino Texas Policy Center 

Email: natalie@latinotexaspolicycenter.com | Ph. (361) 510-1365 

Policy and Fiscal Analysis: 

Christopher Carmona, PhD, Author of:The Hidden Financial Education Cost: Proposed Texas Social Studies TEKS Revisions 

Email: natalie@latinotexaspolicycenter.com | Ph. (956) 854-1717 

State Board of Education Perspectives 

Gustavo Reveles, Texas SBOE District 1 

Email: gustavo.reveles@sboe.texas.gov | Ph. (915) 256-3273 

Marisa Perez-Diaz, Texas SBOE District 3 

Email: marisa.perez@sboe.texas.gov | Ph. (512) 422-9019 

Teacher and Classroom Impact 

Zeph Capo, President, Texas American Federation of Teachers (Texas AFT) 

Email: zcapo@texasaft.org | Ph. (713) 670-4348 

Historical and Academic Analysis & Parent Perspective 

Julia Brookins, American Historical Association 

Email: jbrookins@historians.org | Ph. (773) 272-5209 

QUOTABLES 

"Before Texas commits to an untested curriculum restructuring, taxpayers deserve a complete and independent fiscal analysis." ~ Natalie Sanchez-Lopez 

"The state is telling Texans this overhaul is free. It is not. It simply moves the bill onto school districts, teachers, museums, and taxpayers." ~ Christopher Carmona, PhD 

KEY DATES 

June 22, 2026 SBOE Committee Hearing - Public Testimony 

June 22, 2026 @ 10:00 a.m. 

LTPC Press Conference @ Barbara Jordan Building 

June 26, 2026 State Board of Education - Final Adoption Vote 

ABOUT THE LATINO TEXAS POLICY CENTER 

The Latino Texas Policy Center is an independent, nonpartisan statewide policy organization dedicated to increasing Latino policymaking power through research, leadership development, coalition-building, and evidence-based policy solutions. LTPC focuses on education, economic mobility, civic participation, and long-term community wellbeing. 

www.latinotexaspolicycenter.com 

Read full policy analysis HERE