"Texas State Board of Education renews American Indian/Native Studies course," by Riddhi Bora in Shift/Press, July 4, 2025

After months of delays and over 40 public testimonies, the Texas State Board of Education voted to renew the American Indian/Native Studies course, allowing districts to continue offering it as an elective. The course provides students with a deeper understanding of Indigenous history, culture, and political identity—perspectives often erased or filtered through Eurocentric narratives. Advocates emphasized that Native identity is not simply racial or ethnic, but a legal and sovereign designation, which distinguishes it from content targeted under SB 12. As such, the course does not violate the state’s DEI ban and is fully legal to teach. 

Dr. Maria Unda's words were incisive. “Indigenous is neither a race or ethnicity…they predate the concept of race.”

Of course, it shouldn't matter either way as race and ethnicity are historical social constructs worthy of study.

Students and families testified that without such courses, Native peoples risk being forgotten "as if they never existed." Despite political resistance and bureaucratic hurdles, the course's renewal affirms that Indigenous histories matter—and must be taught.

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas State Board of Education renews American Indian/Native Studies course

By Riddhi Bora

 

Jul 4, 2025

After a year-and-a-half-long deliberation process, several delays and over 40 total testimonies, Texas school districts are re-allowed to offer Native American Studies course as an elective.

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) renewed a American Indian/Native Studies course on Friday, Jun. 27. The 9-4 vote followed more than four hours of discussion on Thursday and Friday, during which testifiers explained the course’s importance and board members debated the course’s legality given implementation of a state law (Senate Bill 12) that bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for schools serving K-12 students.

First introduced in 2020 as an elective course for 10th-12th graders in Grand Prairie ISD, the course allows students to understand Native American history, issues, and perspectives. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) designated this as an innovative studies course, which allows students to gain knowledge and skills outside of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. However, because of SB 12, such courses face elimination.

Orlando Lara, a scholar and longtime advocate for the course’s renewal, said that while the Texas Education Agency labels the course as Ethnic Studies, there’s a difference between ethnic studies and the category of ethnicity and race. Lara said that tribal identity is a particular legal and political category that can’t be equated with race and ethnicity.

Maria Unda, a distinguished postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts, said that the board members did not seem to understand the meanings of race and ethnicity.

“Race is a social construct used in history. For example, I can be racially Hispanic, but my ethnicity is Mexican American or Chicana. They asked me, ‘So what is Indigenous Studies?’ I was like, Indigenous Studies is cultural studies,” said Unda, whose work focuses on race and ethnic studies, educational policy making, and critical policy analysis. “Indigenous is neither a race or ethnicity…they predate the concept of race.”

Lauren, Tom, Walter, and Henry Daughtery, a family from Houston also testified at the meeting. Tom said it’s very clear that when learning about Native Americans, their history is told through a European colonization perspective and that’s why there’s not a strong understanding of their identity. Henry, who is 12 years old, said in his social studies course that he spent about a week during the year learning about Native Americans.

“[American Indian/Native Studies] is important because you can see how [Indigenous folks] have contributed to Texas and how they’ve helped us become who we are,” said Henry Daughtery. “If [American Indian/Native Studies] are not taught enough, they can be forgotten about, as if they never existed.”

The course renewal process began in January 2024, and the SBOE was supposed to decide on a vote in April 2025. However, in April, Lara said for the first time in the SBOE’s history, the SBOE instructed TEA staff to review the recommended resources for an innovative course. The Grand Prairie Social Studies Council put together the resources, and Lara said this TEA review of recommended resources was not mentioned as part of the application process.

“It’s sort of like if you apply for a fellowship and then they call you and say, ‘Actually, we need this other document, but the deadline that applies (has) already passed’,” Lara said. “The SBOE gives themself the leeway to change the process in the middle.”

He said that since 2019, when community members first fought for the course to be taught in schools, they had to compromise a lot, and the entire process involved lots of labor. For an entire year, advocates for the course’s renewal testified in every single general meeting because it wasn’t on the SBOE’s agenda and the course underwent several reviews because the renewal process kept changing, Lara said. 

“We got here. We’ve lost some limbs, (but) everyone is super relieved and happy that we got this far… Even though this is technically just a renewal, it’s a renewal from the SBOE, which is super significant, because in the past, it was just approved by the commissioner,” Lara said. “My message to districts is if they are worried that, ‘Oh, maybe this is illegal to teach’, they now have confirmation it’s legal.”

SBOE member Julie Pickeren threatened another delay by calling a point of order by stating TEA did not give the members the course’s packet and resources for review in time for a Friday vote. SBOE chairman Aaaron Kinsey clarified that the “deadline rule” Pickeren referred to states that if materials are not received on Friday, board members can delay their vote but are not required to.

While the SBOE renewed the course for this fall, Lara said damage has already been done because school districts set their calendars in December or January, so the course won’t be available to districts until the 2026-2027 academic year. 

Unda said she thinks people in power and policymakers frequently forget the importance of centering what students want. From her experience studying educational policymaking and listening to students, Unda said she learned students want ethnic studies courses.

“I wish we supported education (and) funded it correctly… instead of it being this space of oppression and power grabbing,” Unda said. “Whether or not it’s established with TEA… Everyone’s always gonna be teaching critical histories, so the work continues.”

Riddhi Bora

  Riddhi Bora is a journalist passionate about multimedia storytelling and uplifting underrepresented voices. Outside of reporting she enjoys dancing, film photography, watching movies and trying new restaurants.

Instructions for testifying at SBOE Hearing for Tuesday, November 15, 2016

This is it. The Texas State Board of Education is set to hold its final hearing on the deeply flawed and deeply offensive Mexican-American Heritage textbook next week, on Tuesday, November 15.

Let's get straight to the point: We need your voice.

We're cautiously optimistic that the board will #RejectTheText but that will only happen if they hear from you.

The registration period for those wishing to testify at the hearing opened this morning and will remain open until 5 p.m. on Monday, November 14.

We urge you to sign up to testify. Details instructions for testifying can be found here.

We need a diversity of voices telling the SBOE that this simplistic, offensive and error-plagued textbook has no place anywhere near a public school classroom.

Your involvement on this issue will never be more important than it will be next week. Whether you choose to testify, attend the SBOE hearing on Tuesday, November 15 at 9:30 a.m., or share the petition with your network, we need your help for this fight.

On behalf of the Responsible Ethnic Studies Textbook coalition,

Val Benavidez, Texas Freedom Network

#MexicanAmericanStudies

#MASforTexas

#MASTejas

#LibroTraficante @NACCSTejasFoco

#EthnicStudiesNow 

#TxTABE

#criticalpedagogy

#AcademiaCuauhtli

#NuestraEducacionEsNuestraLucha

Update on the Responsible Ethnic Studies Textbook Coalition—FINAL SBOE HEARING ON Nov. 15, 2016

Today is Día de los Muertos, a holiday observed on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to remember loved ones lost, and it is part of my heritage as a Mexican-American.


Will Texas school children, many of whom can trace their families to Mexico and other Latin American countries, learn about this day and other aspects of their heritage in our schools? They may not if the highly inaccurate and deeply offensive Mexican-American studies textbook under consideration by the Texas State Board of Education gets into their classrooms.


That's why it's critical that you make one final push to convince the board to #RejectTheText! The SBOE is set to hold its final hearing on the textbook onTuesday, Nov. 15, followed by an up or down vote later that same week.


You can do two things to help us defeat this textbook:
Share the petition you've already signed demanding that the board #RejectTheText #RejectTheText.
Show your opposition to the text, in person, by joining us at the Nov. 15hearing.
We'll keep you posted on how to sign up to testify, so look for an email about it next week.


On behalf of the
Responsible Ethnic Studies Textbook Coalition,




Val Benavidez
REST Coalition


#RejectTheText
#TxEd
#TxLege
@TFN #TFN
@UTRGV_MAS
#EthnicStudiesNow

@diversebooks

#LibroTraficante
@texasbookfest

#txbookfest
#writinglatinokidsbooks

ANNOUNCEMENT: PRESS CONFERENCE — Texas Latinos Mobilize Against Controversial Mexican-American Textbook

A lot of work has gone into this in our state.  To this end, there will be a press conference at 11:00AM on Monday, July 18, 2016, in support of ethnic studies at the Texas Education Agency located at 1701 Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas.  UT History Professor Dr. Emilio Zamora—representing the ad hoc committee of the Rio Grande Valley reviewing the proposed textbook—will be among the presenters, along with Celina Moreno from MALDEF, President/Executive Director Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network, and others.  Please join us on Monday with your support.

Angela Valenzuela

c/s
 

 #advancingethnicstudies #ethnicstudiesnow

 #MAS #MASTXSummit2016 #Curriculum 

 #TxEd

NBC News

Jul 12 2016, 6:45 pm ET

Texas Latinos Mobilize Against Controversial Mexican-American Textbook

by Griselda Nevarez

 

A textbook on Mexican-American history that some scholars and activists say is poorly written and contains "racist" passages is on a list of proposed books for use in Texas public schools.
The book, called "Mexican American Heritage" is on the list of proposed textbooks that the Texas State Board of Education is considering to use as part of instructional materials for the newly created Mexican-American studies class.

If approved, the book would be used in classrooms as early as next year, something critics are trying to prevent from happening.

They say the book is filled with inaccurate depictions of Mexican-American history and culture. They also point out that the book was written by two authors, Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle, who aren't known in the field of Mexican-American studies.

"It is one of the most racist textbooks I've ever had the displeasure of reading," said Tony Díaz, a Houston-based educator, community activist and author who spearheaded the Librotraficante movement, which transported books to Arizona that had been banned by the Tucson school district.
RELATED: 'Nuestra Palabra' Celebrates 18 Years Showcasing Latino Literature
Díaz was one of the educators who pressed the state board to create a Mexican-American studies class last year.

"The people who wrote it obviously have no understanding of the difference between the term Chicano, Latino, Hispanic so that any time the word is uttered in the book, it's used incorrectly," Diaz said of the proposed textbook. "There's no way to edit it to fix it. The book needs to go."
Díaz is one of the organizers of a community meeting on Tuesday night to step up the opposition to using the book.

One passage of the book links Mexican Americans to undocumented immigrants and claims that illegal immigration has "caused a number of economic and security problems in the United States," including "poverty, non-assimilation, drugs, crime, and exploitation."

In another passage, Chicanos in the 1960's civil rights era are described as people who "adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society."


The "Mexican American Heritage" textbook was published by Momentum Instruction, a company that according to Houston Chronicle appears to be owned and operated by Cynthia Dunbar, former member of the Texas State Board of Education who critics call right-wing.

Momentum Instruction did not immediately return a call or respond to an email from NBC News Latino.

Lauren Callahan, spokesperson for the Texas State Board of Education, said the book will be reviewed by a panel of educators over the summer. The panel will determine the extent to which the book meets state standards and will look for factual errors.

In September, the state board will hold a public hearing to go over the panel's findings and to hear comments from the public. The public also has until September to visit the state board's website and submit factual errors or comments regarding the book.

A final vote by the state board on whether to approve or reject the book will come in November.
"It is a long process, and it's a long process for that reason - so that people have ample time to go through and review the materials," Callahan said.

She added that even if the book is approved, school districts are not required to use it and may purchase other instructional materials for use in the Mexican American Studies class.

Diaz said he and other scholars and activists are teaming up to hold community meetings across the state to educate people about what's in the book and what they can do to prevent it from going into Texas classrooms. The first in the series of community meetings was scheduled for Tuesday night.

There's also an online petition calling on the state board to remove the "Mexican American Heritage" from the list of proposed textbooks and to reopen the call for textbooks used for Mexican American studies.

Diaz said Tuesday night's community meeting is one of the first steps to getting the public "deeply involved" before the state board votes on whether or not to approve the textbook.

"We have about 20 weeks before the vote, so we're going to start now and keep constant pressure," he said.

Texas State Board of Education District Maps

TX SBOE District Map

TXSBOE Members
 

Is Texas Southern, Western, or Truly a Lone Star?

 This is a really excellent, critical piece that unmasks the historic, ideological agenda for Texas leaders to market and socialize a view of Texas that is not only a systemic, structured, and ideological embellishment, but that is also so at the expense of Mexicans and the Mexican American community that is native either to Texas, the continent, or both, Texas and the continent. It's worth reading it in its entirety, but this quote by TCU History Professor Robert Cantrell to some extent sums it all up:

“I don’t want to oversimplify any interpretive theme but I really subscribe to the idea that the notion of Texas as a Western state, when you really boil it down to its essence, it’s really been part and parcel of what is now a hundred-years-and-running effort to escape what C. Vann Woodward called ‘the burden of Southern history,’” says Cantrell. 

This piece should get read in tandem with the excellent reflection by Texas Monthly writer Cecilia Ballí who wrote a thoughtful reflection on the day of the unveiling of the Tejano Monument on the Texas state capitol grounds on March 29, 2012. It is a valorizing, affirming, inclusive narrative (or counter-narrative).  She quotes historian Dr. Andrés Tijerina who has written many books on Tejano history and who expressed the following sentiment at the actual unveiling:

We need to hear Tejano history. We need to hear Tejano history at the state Capitol.” The audience cheered, and a few people yelled, “Woo!”

Ballí accomplishes what Cantrell similarly attempts to do in this piece.  Both take on the mythic dimensions of Texas history in ways that valorize—that add positive value—to the presence of Mexicans in Texas.

And it doesn't end here.  Out of this initiative came the Tejano Monument Curriculum Project directed by Dr. Emilio Zamora with online access here.

-Angela

Is Texas Southern, Western, or Truly a Lone Star?

by John Nova Lomax

Tue March 3, 2015 3:54 pm

It’s that time of year again, that time when old-school, mainly Anglo Texans celebrate, commemorate—and in some extreme cases—reenact the fall of the Alamo, the massacre at Goliad, and the decisive victory at San Jacinto. William Barrett Travis’s letter from the Alamo is dusted off and forwarded around the Internet, along with Davy Crockett’s zinger about where you all could go (Hell) and where he was going (Texas).
Meanwhile, here in Houston, Go Texan Day has just come and gone, which found office workers nervously hoping that they could still squeeze into last year’s gingham dress or tight-fittin’ Wranglers, and schoolkids of every race, color, and creed clomping around their school halls in cowboy boots most will never wear again. Roads normally clogged with motorized traffic were instead all a-clop with the hooves of hundreds horses, as the spur-janglin’ trail riders and trundling chuckwagons finally arriving at their Memorial Park campsite after many miles of hard riding on paved roads. Go Texan Day kicks of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, 20 days and nights of cattle auctions, bull-riding and barrel-racing, and (mostly) country music concerts, all in honor of Houston’s venerable heritage as one of the America’s great Western cowtowns.
The trouble is, the whole thing is built on a big fat historical fiction. Houston was never a cowtown, at least not in any meaningful sense, and it never even pretended to be for the first century of its existence. The same goes for Dallas, which, while only 32 miles from Fort Worth, the real Cowtown and situated on the very edge of what we have come to see as the American West, was always, like Houston, much more about cotton than cattle—at least until Spindletop blew in.

Continue reading here.

The Plan to Get Climate-Change Denial Into Schools

Sad—no, pathetic—state of affairs here in Texas.

-Angela

The Plan to Get Climate-Change Denial Into Schools

Activists are pushing educators to teach that human-caused global warming is an opinion—rather than a fact—by issuing textbook ratings of their own.

Clare Foran Dec 8 2014, 2:30 PM ET

Jeff Kubina

"As the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase, the Earth warms. Scientists warn that climate change, caused by this warming, will pose challenges to society."
That language—featured in a fifth-grade Texas social studies textbook from Pearson Education—is exactly the kind of global-warming alarmism that Emily McBurney wants to protect schoolchildren from.
McBurney was a lot happier with an earlier version of the textbook that said, "Scientists disagree about what is causing climate change." But the publisher cut the material amid pressure from groups like the National Center for Science Education.
The edited educational material, McBurney says, amounts to "a one-sided global-warming climate-change agenda."
McBurney is a member of the Truth in Texas Textbooks coalition, a volunteer-run organization of more than 100 activists that wants global warming to be taught as an opinion rather than fact.
"If you're a car salesman and you have a car that has bad ratings, that car is not going to sell," says Roy White, the founder of Truth in Texas Textbooks and a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. "That is what is going to happen with these books."
To shape climate curriculum, the coalition plans to rate textbooks as "good," "acceptable," "poor," or "worse." The group will score books on an array of subjects—and any educational material that treats global warming as settled science is guaranteed to get low marks.

"We have created a tool so that now people will have a sense of which books are best for their kids."

Truth in Texas Textbooks formed last year to shape how climate change and scores of other topics are taught. It has no political or religious affiliation but organizers recruit volunteers through tea-party networks and church groups—as well as teachers associations, Rotary clubs, and other civic organizations—and have accused publishers of creating textbooks with an "anti-Christian" and "anti-American" bias.
Teaching that the global-warming theory is controversial reflects public opinion, as there is a sharp divide over the connection between human activity and Earth's evolving climate. But that approach is sharply at odds with climate scientists, who nearly universally believe the former is driving the latter.
Textbooks are often the first conduit between climate science and young people. The books that the Texas truth coalition is fighting over are expected to be used by more than 5 million Texas public school students for at least a decade. Texas is also the second-largest market for textbooks behind California, and publishers often peddle best-selling Texas textbooks in other states.
And that's not all: The coalition's system of rating textbooks could soon spread beyond Texas. White says that activists in California, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin have already contacted the coalition to learn how they can create their own rating system.
Advocacy groups giving grades to Texas textbooks is not novel: A conservative Christian organization called Educational Research Analysts has been rating educational material in the state since the 1960s. The group questions scientific evidence for evolution and supports education that promotes abstinence until marriage. Educational Research Analysts also has ties to the Texas truth coalition: Its president, Neal Frey, advised White as he worked to get Truth in Texas Textbooks off the ground.
But Educational Research Analysts hasn't worked on climate science, which is a targeted area for Truth in Texas Textbooks.
So far, however, the group has struggled. The coalition faced a setback when the Texas Board of Education voted last month to adopt new social-studies textbooks for public schools. Ahead of the vote, major publishers—including McGraw-Hill and Pearson—stripped out passages that cast doubt on climate change. The revisions followed fierce criticism of the content from groups like the Texas Freedom Network, a left-leaning advocacy group that pushes for man-made global warming to be taught in the books, and Climate Parents, an organization dedicated to teaching climate science.

"Administrators and teachers who make the purchasing decisions will see right through the nonsense."

Eighty-nine new social-studies textbooks have now been approved in the state. But school districts have a lot of leeway over exactly which books to buy, a series of decisions that they're slated to make this spring.
The coalition sees that policy as an opportunity. It plans to send out a report to school districts detailing the grades assigned to each book. Volunteers are also gearing up to distribute their ratings among concerned-citizens groups and parent-teacher organizations.
"We have created a tool so that now people will have a sense of which books are best for their kids," White says.
Still, options for altering climate curriculum are limited. None of the approved textbooks that will be used in classrooms next fall dispute the scientific consensus that man-made climate change is underway.
The coalition is working to encourage publishers to make last-minute changes before the books go to print this fall. Barring that, volunteers hope public pressure will inspire teachers to teach climate controversy even if textbooks do not mandate that approach.
"Children are so vulnerable in their younger years and what they hear they believe is truth," said Karin Gililland, another volunteer with the coalition. "Truth is what this is all about. We want truth."
Emily McBurney echoed that concern: "I'm afraid that [teaching climate change] is instilling fear in children at a very young age that either we're going to run out of something or overpollute the Earth. I didn't want them to come away with the wrong impression of America."
But opponents of the coalition insist that teaching the controversy and not the consensus on climate change will lead to devastating consequences.

More From National Journal

• House Republican Plans to Introduce Pro-Climate-Science Bill
• Will Immigration Plan's Launch Repeat Obamacare's Mistakes?
• There's a Biking Gender Gap. And It Has a Real Economic Impact.

"Whether climate change is real and caused by humans is not scientifically disputed, and textbooks or teachers who pretend that it is would be miseducating students," said Josh Rosenau, the programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education.
Dan Quinn, a spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, doubts the coalition will gain traction. He called their reviews "amateurish" and "overtly political" and believes "school administrators and teachers who make the purchasing decisions will see right through the nonsense."
Volunteers with the coalition remain optimistic and determined to achieve their aim.
"This is just the beginning," McBurney said. "We're hoping to spread the word throughout the United States, throughout the world."

My Reflection on Moses becoming an honorary founding father

by Angela Valenzuela

Such ignorance, arrogance, and hypocrisy.

The flip, easy thing is to scoff and view as ridiculous the SBOE, and Texas, generally.  It's actually not funny at all if we unpack the bias contained within that is simply a more extreme version of what is otherwise generally the rule.

As Milton Gordon laid out in his definitive treatise, ASSIMILATION IN AMERICAN LIFE, the United States is not a pluralistic society where different groups with their own respective institutions thrive on relatively equal ground in harmony with other groups.  Nor is ours a melting pot society that results in the creation of a new synthesis called "American."  Instead, Gordon termed this "Anglo conformity," where the English language and Anglo cultural mores, and values (like individualism, a belief in a meritocracy, and free market capitalism) reign supreme.

Aside from the facts about Moses and the Constitution and the shady process of textbook adoption by the Texas SBOE that are serious enough issues, I underscore just how problematic  it is to cast our country as a “redeemer nation,”when if anything, it needs redemption from its many atrocious and continuing sins, beginning with the genocide, conquest, and colonization of native people and slavery—a past with which it still needs to fully reckon.   

My main point is that by using Moses as a symbol, this is a reinstantiation of Anglo, protestant (WASP) dominance and hegemony for public school students in Texas at a time of not only significant, but ground breaking demographic shifts.  According to the September 10, 2013 issue of the Texas Tribune:

 The current crop of seniors will likely be among the last not containing a majority of Hispanic students. It will also, based on preliminary enrollment data from the 2012-13 school year, probably fall among the last without a majority of students. from impoverished backgrounds.

The unspoken logics of cultural bias, chauvinism, dominance and the fear of the "other," lay behind Anglo conformity as instruments of control—and the continuing agenda of historical erasure of the histories of native people—lay behind moves like these that are important to call out.

 Young people, you have all the means at your disposal, to not only investigate all of this on your own, but to investigate the SBOE itself.  Find out who represents you and how they voted on this decision and let them know what you think.  Vote in school board and State Board of Education elections.  Consider running for this office in your own district.

Here is who sits on the board:  http://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Leadership/State_Board_of_Education/Board_Members/SBOE_Members/  This link tells helps you find who represents you: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx

Educate yourself so that you, too, can stand up to these misrepresentations of the Bible and the U.S. Constitution and just as importantly, the larger, historic agenda to exercise cultural dominance and power over you behind lies and distortions like these.

So don't scoff at the board; get organized and get these right-wing zealots out.  Because curriculum entails the reproduction of consciousness, there are perhaps no more important battles than these anyway.  At the very least, liberate your minds!

© 2014 Angela Valenzuela

Christian Conservatives Make Moses An Honorary Founding Father

Texas approves textbooks with Moses as Founding Father

November 21, 2014 by Michael Stone 1953 Comments

Christian conservatives win, children lose: Texas textbooks will teach public school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on the Bible, and the American system of democracy was inspired by Moses.

On Friday the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education voted along party lines 10-5 to approve the biased and inaccurate textbooks. The vote signals a victory for Christian conservatives in Texas, and a disappointing defeat for historical accuracy and the education of innocent children.
The textbooks were written to align with instructional standards that the Board of Education approved back in 2010 with the explicit intention of forcing social studies teaching to adhere to a conservative Christian agenda. The standards require teachers to emphasize America’s so called “Christian heritage.”

In essence, Christian conservatives in Texas have successfully forced a false historical narrative into public school textbooks that portray Moses as an influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of democracy.

Critics called the whole process into question after publishers posted a number of last-minute changes to the textbooks yesterday, leaving board members and observers without time to figure out exactly what was in the approved texts.

According to reports, scholars did not have an opportunity to review and comment on the numerous changes publishers have submitted since the last public hearing. Some of those changes appeared to have been negotiated with state board members behind closed doors.

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller issued the following statement:

“What we saw today shows very clearly that the process the State Board of Education uses to adopt textbooks is a sham. This board adopted textbooks with numerous late changes that the public had little opportunity to review and comment on and that even board members themselves admitted they had not read. They can’t honestly say they know what’s in these textbooks, which could be in classrooms for a decade.”

In addition to Miller’s complaints about the process, the Texas Freedom Network issued a statement on today’s State Board of Education vote to adopt new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools, noting:

the new textbooks also include passages that suggest Moses influenced the writing of the Constitution and that the roots of democracy can be found in the Old Testament. Scholars from across the country have said such claims are inaccurate and mislead students about the historical record.

Emile Lester, a professor of history in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington, claim the textbooks contain “inventions and exaggerations” about Christianity’s influence on the Founding Fathers and, by extension, the formation of American democracy.

Credible historians warn the misguided attempt to suggest biblical origins for the Constitution would lead students to believe that “Moses was the first American.”

Scholars claim the decision to include the biblical figure of Moses in social studies education is part of a concerted effort by Christian extremists to promote the idea that the United States is a “redeemer nation” – giving a divine justification for supposed American exceptionalism.

The proposed textbooks are deeply flawed, and have no place in a public school classroom. It is wrong and factually incorrect to teach Texas public school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on the Bible.

Despite the efforts of Christian conservatives to pervert and twist U.S. history to satisfy their religious superstition, the fact remains Moses was not the first American, and America is not a Christian nation.

Children deserve the truth.
(H/T Right Wing Watch)

Consider signing this petition for accurate textbooks. This reminds me of former Texas the first female Governor of Texas Ma Ferguson (1925) who was perhaps most famous for saying:

"If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, then it's good enough for Texas."

You  gotta’ love it! :-)

-Angela

SMU Scholar: New Texas Textbooks Suggest ‘Wrong-Headed Idea That the United States Was Founded on Biblical Law’

By Dan | Published October 8, 2014

 

When the State Board of Education held its first public hearing on proposed new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools, scholars from across the state (and from outside Texas) expressed their concerns about serious problems in those texts. Kathleen Wellman, Dedman Family Distinguished Professor of History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, was particularly concerned with how the textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influences on the American founding.
That exaggeration goes so far, Wellman notes in the video clip of her September testimony above, that the textbooks essentially make Moses “the Founding Father.” The impression students will get? Wellman, with only a hint of sarcasm:

“I think they’ll believe that Moses was the first American.”

Religious-righters on the State Board of Education in Texas hoped for this kind of textbook content when they passed deeply flawed and politicized new curriculum standards for social studies classes in 2010. The new textbooks must cover those standards.

You can read more about the problems in the proposed new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools here: tfn.org/history. While you’re there, sign the petition calling for textbooks based on honest, accurate history, not the ideological beliefs of politicians on the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education is set to vote in November on which textbooks to approve.

Texas education board opts to stay out of dispute over new tests

By TERRENCE STUTZ | Austin Bureau, Dallas Morning-News
November, 17 2011

AUSTIN — State Board of Education members indicated Thursday they will not get involved in a dispute over the new high school end-of-course exams and how much they must count toward student grades in the 12 subjects that will be tested beginning this year.

Several board members said they were unwilling to modify a law passed by the Legislature that says the new test must count for at least 15 percent of the final grade in each of the core subjects.

Under the 2007 law, high school students must get a passing average on the three end-of-course tests in each of four subject areas — English, math, science and social studies — to receive a diploma. The law also spells out how the test results will be calculated into the final grade in each course.

School superintendents across the state have complained that the testing law is unclear about how such things as course credits, grade-point averages and class rankings should be determined after inclusion of the end-of-course test scores — and the Texas Education Agency has been reluctant to issue guidelines on the 15 percent requirement.

State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, proposed Thursday that the board adopt a rule that students failing an end-of-course test still be given credit for a course if they had a grade of 70 or better in the course — exclusive of what they scored on the end-of-course exam for the subject.

His proposal was backed by superintendents, who argued that it would maintain local control of grading policies in school districts and allow students who met all passing standards in the course except for the final test to still get credit for their work.

“I can’t find a school superintendent who is not in favor of this proposal,” Abilene ISD Superintendent Heath Burns told the board in voicing support for Ratliff’s plan. “This is a change that needs to happen.”

But several board members said they could not favor such a move, particularly since a similar effort in the legislative session earlier this year failed.

“The Legislature had a purpose in mind, that students have to pass these exams to get a diploma,” said board member Terri Leo, R-Spring. “You need to go to the pink house [state Capitol] if you’re having problems with this requirement and not ask us to lower standards. This would lower the bar for students when we’re supposed to be raising it.”

Board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, said the proposed change would send the wrong message to students and teachers.

“The state is just asking for some accountability, just 15 percent,” he said. “This initiative will send a message to dumb down our standards. Everybody will get a trophy and nobody will fail.”

Ratliff rejected the notion that the proposal would diminish standards, saying, “What we’re trying to do is protect kids who are passing their class as determined by 180 days in a school year and not four hours on a test.”

With less than a majority of board members inclined to take action, Ratliff said he would set aside his proposal for now.

“My goal was to raise awareness of this issue so that we could see the unintended consequences of the law,” he said.

Ratliff noted that some school districts have already revised their grading policies so that any failing grade on an end-of-course test will be converted into a score of 69, making it impossible for a student to fail a class solely on the basis of the test score. Students would still have to get passing averages on each group of tests to earn a diploma.

Gov. Perry Appoints Five to State Board for Educator Certification

Office of the Governor • Austin, Texas
Monday, May 16, 2011

Gov. Rick Perry has appointed five members to the State Board for Educator Certification. The board develops certification, continuing education requirements and standards of conduct for public school teachers.

Curtis Culwell of Garland is superintendent of the Garland Independent School District. He is a member and past chairman of the University Interscholastic League Legislative Council, a member of the American and Texas associations of School Administrators, and the Select Committee on Public School Finance Weights, Allotments and Adjustments. He is also past president of the Texas School Alliance, a past member of the Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform, and a volunteer for the March of Dimes and United Way of Dallas County. Culwell received a bachelor's degree from Sam Houston State University, and a master's degree and doctorate degree in educational administration from Texas A&M University at Commerce. He is reappointed for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2017.

Kathryn Everest of Arlington is director of guidance and counseling for the Fort Worth Independent School District. She is a member of the American Counseling Association and American School Counselor Association, and a member and immediate past director of the Texas Association of Counselor Education and Supervision. She is also co-founder and co-coordinator of the Tarrant County Trauma Response Team in Schools, past vice president of the Texas School Counseling Association, and a past board member of the Texas Counseling Association. Everest received a bachelor's degree, a master's degree in educational counseling, and an educational administrator certification from the University of North Texas. She is appointed for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2015.

Suzanne McCall of Lubbock is an elementary school teacher in the Slaton Independent School District. She is president of the Slaton Classroom Teacher Association, director of District 17 of the Texas Classroom Teacher Association, and a sustaining member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. She is also a past coach of the Slaton Little Dribblers and a past volunteer with the Lubbock Food Bank. McCall received a bachelor's degree from Texas Woman's University. She is appointed for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2017.
Christie Pogue of Buda is an editorial assistant for the Texas State University Armed Forces and Society Journal. She is a member of the American Society of Public Administrators, Hays Consolidated ISD Parent/Teacher Association, and Hays Consolidated ISD Athletic and Band Booster clubs. She is also a past trustee of the Texas Association of School Boards, past vice president of the Hays Consolidated ISD School Board, and a founder and past chair of the North Hays Leadership Council. Pogue received a bachelor's degree and is pursuing a master of public administration from Texas State University. She is reappointed for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2017.

Grant W. Simpson of Gainesville is dean and a professor at St. Edward's University School of Education. He is a member of the American and Texas associations of Colleges for Teacher Education, former chair of the Region 9 P-16 Council, and a past member of the Texas Professors of Educational Administration. Simpson received a bachelor's degree from Trinity College, a master's degree in special education from the University of Texas, and a doctorate of educational administration from Texas A&M University. He is reappointed for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2017.

These appointments are subject to Senate confirmation.

Hispanic lawmakers' suit challenges redistricting plans

Suit says Hispanics will be harmed in representation.

By John W. Gonzalez | My San Antonio
Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A federal lawsuit filed Monday by some Texas House members blasts the use of “inaccurate” 2010 Census data in the remapping of state political jurisdictions.

The lawsuit by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus against Gov. Rick Perry and top lawmakers alleges that the census vastly undercounted Hispanics, especially in the border region. As a result, Latinos will be shortchanged in their representation at the Legislature and the State Board of Education, the lawsuit claims.

Additionally, the lawsuit calls for an end to at-large statewide election of the three Texas Railroad Commission members, replacing that system with voting by single-member places. The lawsuit says that since 1891, only three Hispanics have served as railroad commissioners — none in the past 20 years — but that “a fairly drawn single-member district can result in one district with a majority Latino citizen voting-age population.”

Alleging violations of the federal Voting Rights Act, the lawsuit says census tallies from Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Webb, El Paso, Dallas and Harris counties severely underestimated the Hispanic populations there. Bexar County wasn't mentioned.

The pleadings say the Republican leadership was planning “to limit the number of Latino majority districts and to even eliminate an existing majority Latino district in Nueces County. Defendants also employ redistricting gerrymandering techniques such as packing and over-populating minority districts in order to minimize minority opportunity districts.”

The lawsuit comes less than two weeks after the GOP-dominated Texas House approved new configurations for its 150 districts. The House and Senate have approved new territories for the 15 State Board of Education districts. The 31-member Texas Senate has yet to approve new Senate district lines, and neither chamber has agreed to a congressional map. Texas, which has 32 seats in the U.S. House, is getting four more because of population growth.

The caucus filed a similar lawsuit a month ago in Brownsville.

Perry's office deferred comment to the attorney general's office, which had no immediate reaction because it had not yet received the litigation.

Another lawsuit filed Monday challenges the way the census counted inmates around the state. That lawsuit, filed by state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, claims that inmates should be counted as residents of their home counties, not where they are incarcerated.

HB 505: César Chávez Holiday To Be Eliminated in Texas? "I Don't Think so," Says Rep. Alonzo

OPINION EDITORIAL
by Texas State Representative Roberto R. Alonzo (District 104 - Dallas)
January 5, 2011

Legislation has been filed for the 82n Legislature by Texas lawmaker, State Rep. Tyron Lewis of Odessa which would eliminate "Cesar Chavez Day" as a state optional holiday in Texas. That is shameful. That is unfortunate, especially when we consider everything that the civil rights icon, human rights advocate and civil rights activist has done for the poor, the disenfranchised, and the oppressed, not only in Texas but all over the country. Rep. Lewis yesterday filed House Bill 505 which would eliminate "Cesar Chavez Day," and replace it with "Texas Hispanic Heritage Day," in Texas as an optional state holiday.

Cesar Chavez was a passionate advocate for social justice and civil rights for the poor and the disenfranchised, not only in Texas, but all over the United States. He was a role model for many hard-working average Americans, especially farm workers. He was truly an American hero and icon. Chavez rallied for and succeeded in improving the wages, schooling, housing, and other living conditions of farm workers of all ethnic backgrounds. In 1991, Chavez received one of Mexico's premier awards, Aguila Azteca (Aztec Eagle) for contributions made outside Mexico. Additionally, in 1994, he was posthumously presented with our nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a former migrant worker myself, my family and I - like so many others across every geographic corner of the great United States - are honored and humbled indeed every year when we gather in unison to commemorate the day that honors this great man, this role model and giant, and the many accomplishments he achieved so that the rest of us could have a better quality of life and success in the future.

I am certain Chavez's legacy will impact positively our children and our grandchildren in much the same way, even if they did not get to live during his lifetime, or ever set foot on the toiling and unpleasant soils of a hot migrant field like so many of us did while growing up with our poor families. Chavez's decades of experiences on the hot and toiling migrant fields transcended more than just farmworkers alone; those experiences live and continue to this day and impact daily the lives of so many of us in many ways. Chavez was an icon for labor and civil rights, championing the causes of minorities and the poor for many decades before he died at 66 on April 23, 1993. Whether it was rounding up everyday workers on or off the migrant fields, rallying support in our local communities, boycotting at our supermarkets, or even speaking before local, state, or federal agencies or congressional committees, Chavez consistently rallied for and succeeded in improving the wages, schooling, housing, and other living conditions of farm workers and average day workers of all ethnic backgrounds in similar fashion. It is for this very reason that session after session, I consistently filed and will continue to file and support legislation that recognizes the legacy and many achievements of Cesar Chavez. During the 81st legislative session in 2009, I authored and successfully passed two house resolutions, commemorating the birth, significant contributions, and death of Chavez. The first House Resolution, HR 300, honored the life of Cesar E. Chavez on March 31, 2009, by commemorating the 82nd anniversary of his birth. Likewise, HR 308 honored the life of Cesar Chavez and recognized the month beginning March 31, 2009, as Cesar Chavez Farmworker Appreciation Month in Texas. And in 2010, HR 324 and HR 325, respectively, paid the same tributes to Chavez in Texas in the same annual tradition. And respectfully and appropriately, I have done the same for the 82nd session which will start next week, through HR 26 and HR 27, for the years 2011 and 2012, respectively.

And in early February 2010, I was among the first of a growing list of public officials at the local, county, state, and federal levels alike, along with a number of other civic and business leaders, in Dallas who applauded members of the Dallas City Council on the brave and historical vote they took when they renamed Cesar Street in Dallas. The council voted unanimously to rename the stretch of South Central Expressway between Pacific Avenue and Grand Avenue as Cesar Chavez Street in recognition of all the exemplary achievements by this great icon.

In short, I find the filing of HB 505 by my colleague Rep. Lewis eliminating Cesar Chavez Day in Texas as an optional holiday, as a slap in the face, not only to migrant farmworkers, but to Hispanics all over the state and nation, but most particularly in Texas where we have already become the majority population in the state, and growing. The monumental civil rights icon, labor rights activists, representative for so many average day workers deserves better. By eliminating Cesar Chavez Day as a holiday in Texas we are in essence turning back history and telling all Hispanics, particularly our children and grandchildren, that if you accomplish great things and make a positive difference in improving the quality of life for others, you will not be recognized if you are a migrant, Hispanic, or other minority. That to me, is shameful. HB 505 is nothing more than an ultra-conservative, right-wing, anti-Hispanic, and anti-immigrant measure that will only serve to continue to hold back and reverse the advancements that we as Hispanics have struggled so much and hard for to improve the lives of Hispanics all over Texas and the nation.