Dive Brief:

• The Texas State Board of Education on Friday approved controversial social studies and required reading standards, overhauling its curriculum to incorporate Biblical stories across nearly all grade levels. 
• The approval comes amid months of criticism over the standards themselves — which opponents say blur the lines of church-state separation, favor Christianity over other religions, and lack diversity — as well as the board's approach to the changes. 
• The successful push by the Republican-majority board in a state that educates 5.5 million students — or about 1 in 10 of the nation’s K-12 population — is a major win for the broader conservative effort to incorporate the Christian faith in public schools, supporters of which point to its influence on U.S. history. 

Dive Insight:

The changes will be implemented in the early 2030s and staggered by grade level.

Prior to the Friday vote, public commenters criticized the board's approval process, which they alleged was shrouded in secrecy, pushed through without full consideration of public feedback, and lacked expert insight. 

"As a result of these and other irregularities, SBOE was never provided with the required basis for comparing a proposed new product that is going to cost taxpayers a billion dollars with the one you already have," said Julia Brookins, special projects coordinator at the American Historical Association, before the board on Friday. "These have been apparent for months. Students and families will likely be living with them for years to come."

Meghan Dougherty, a social studies expert who was part of a working group that provided feedback on the curriculum, said the public comment period on the standards closed June 15 at 5 p.m., but that content advisors made their consensus recommendations that same morning beginning at 8 a.m. The final week's worth of public comment, she said, was not shared with the advisors until June 18. 

"There's no honest way to claim the advisors considered all the public comments, because the calendar made it impossible," she said. "The volume ignored was staggering." 

The curriculum changes received 583 comments in the first four weeks of the public comment period, she said, whereas the last week saw over 600. 

"This is not quality work. This is incompetence," said Dougherty. "A document assembled in the dark by people who are not educators and are not content experts in social studies, decided what a generation of Texas children will and won't learn. And the people who show up to testify – teachers, experts, parents — are treated with contempt." 

Some board members on Friday also pushed back against the standards, which go above and beyond a 2023 Texas law requiring at least one literary work be taught in each grade level.  

"I'm just really pleading with you to really consider allowing schools to have their autonomy over the books that are selected and go through their local process," said Evelyn Brooks, a board member, on Friday. "The local process works."

A broader movement met with litigation

However, the Texas State Board of Education released a statement Friday saying the "transformative shift in how Texas students will learn history and literature" will help students "understand the arc of America becoming a more perfect union." 

"Students will finally get the full story," said Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey in a statement. "This is how historians work. Students can trace the development of liberty, self-government, free enterprise, and constitutional principles across generations." 

Kinsey's statement reflects sentiments expressed by other supporters of infusing religion in public schools, who say that the Bible and Christian faith are foundational to understanding American history — especially considering their influence on the nation's founders. 

Texas is among states leading the charge to incorporate Christianity in the classroom, with the state also allowing religious chaplains into schools to support student mental health — as long as the chaplain is not a known sex offender — and requiring that schools display the Ten Commandments.

Under another Texas law adopted last year, schools can set aside daily time for prayer and reading the Bible or other religious texts. 

“Today’s votes by the Texas State Board of Education is yet another example of Texas politicians pushing Christianity on public schoolchildren. Public schools should not force children to read Bible stories," said Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser in a June 26 statement. 

Laser called the board's vote "part of a broader movement… to misuse public schools to impose one narrow set of religious beliefs and indoctrinate a new generation of Americans in the lie that America is a Christian country." 

When asked whether the organization would challenge the new standards in court, Laser said in a statement to K-12 Dive on Monday that "everything is on the table," and her organization is "monitoring the situation and we’re ready to defend Texas families’ religious freedom." 

Other states that have taken steps to incorporate religion in public schools include Oklahoma and Louisiana. Other efforts in those states, like Ten Commandment laws, have been heavily litigated.