Texas education board advances history standards critics say remove diverse views
The State Board of Education has approved a draft proposal to overhaul the state’s social studies standards. Critics say the new standards will minimize diverse perspectives in how U.S. history is taught.
This month, the board held a week of meetings in Austin to review proposals for the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in social studies, determining what students will learn at each grade level. The meetings included public testimony in which students, educators and activists shared their opinions on the proposals. The draft was approved in a 9 to 5 vote on April 10, with all Republican trustees voting in favor of it.
Opponents of these changes say the standards lack perspectives from people of color globally and overemphasize the role Christianity played in the founding of the country.
In September, the Republican-majority board approved plans in an 8-7 vote to teach events in chronological order, center on Texas and U.S. history, and deemphasize world history. A panel of nine advisers was chosen in October to provide feedback and recommendations throughout the process.
Democrats on the board tried to stall the vote after revealing in a press release on April 8 that one of the advisers, Donald Frazier, who leads the Texas Center at Schreiner University, a private university in Kerrville, was awarded $70,000 by the conservative think tank Public Policy Foundation. The award’s purpose was for “work related to TEKS development,” according to the press release.
“The failure to disclose this funding to the entire SBOE is deeply troubling, raises serious ethical concerns, and casts doubt over the integrity of the entire review process,” the press release said.
One of the contested parts of the standards was the addition of biblical passages in required reading lists across grade levels. The Texas Education Agency initially proposed over 300 literary works, from which the state board trimmed about 100 of the readings. Still readings such as the stories of Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath, and the Book of Job remained.
Tiffany Clark, a Democrat and a Texas State Board of Education trustee who represents Fort Worth, says as a Christian herself, she believes we should not use policy to promote one religion over another. “Faith is personal. Government is public. Don’t mix the two,” she said in a statement to the Star-Telegram.
“My faith is real to me. It guides how I move, how I treat people, how I show up. But when the curriculum leans too heavily into one religion and does not give equal space to others like Islam, Judaism, and more, it stops being education and starts looking like endorsement,” Clark said in the statement. “And religion definitely doesn’t need to be forced on somebody else to be valid.”
Brandon Hall, a Republican board member who represents parts of Tarrant County, did not respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment.
In September, the Fort Worth ISD school board approved the Bluebonnet Learning curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade, with a 6-3 vote. The curriculum caused controversy for incorporating biblical and Christian teaching into literacy lessons with little acknowledgment of other religions.
Karen Molinar, who was Fort Worth ISD superintendent at the time, said adopting the Bluebonnet reading curriculum was the right step for the district. Board member Quinton “Q” Phillips, one of the dissenting votes, said he could imagine parents who weren’t Christian being upset when their children come home talking about Bible stories they learned at school.
Clay Robison, public affairs specialist for the Texas State Teachers’ Association, says the new history curriculum emphasizes U.S. and Texas exceptionalism while deemphasizing world history. At the State Board of Education hearings, students voiced their opinions on the curriculum, saying they wanted to learn both the good and the bad, and inclusive perspectives on history, Robison said.
In a January 2026 proposal, lessons about world history are framed through how it influences the creation of Western civilization, America and Texas. For Ancient Rome, the curriculum would show important “influential aspects of Christianity that began under Roman rule and later influenced American and Texas laws and traditions.” Other religions, like Islam, or countries, like African nations, are not given the same connection or exploration as Rome, Israel or Greece.
“Children of every ethnicity need to see themselves in the literature and books they read, and the role of their own ancestors in the history of the country and in the history of the state,” Robison said. “This should not be a white-centric, Christian-centric, Texas-centric curriculum. Our history, our culture, and our social studies are much broader than that, and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
Brandon Gillis, director of teaching and learning for the American Historical Association, says academics and historians approach history by recognizing the importance of different perspectives. The new curriculum may undermine a part of public education that is not just about students understanding their community and who they are, but also about recognizing other legitimate historical experiences outside of Texas, he said.
If students lose the ability to recognize different perspectives and experiences, it could contribute to marginalizing or writing others out of the American story, Gillis said.
“It’s not just getting rid of global perspectives and world history,” Gillis said. “It’s telling U.S. history in a very narrow particular way that is often exclusionary or dismissive of ideas or people who don’t seem to fit that story.”
The final vote will be in June, with implementation of the social studies standards projected for the 2030-31 school year.
Lina Ruiz and Silas Allen contributed to this story.
