Texas Conservatives Mobilize Against New Social Curriculum Adding Gender, LGBT and CRT Ideology
https://www.theepochtimes.com/texas-cons...aign=digitalsub
State board of education holding public hearing on changes

By Darlene McCormick Sanchez
August 29, 2022 Updated: August 29, 2022

Texas conservatives are revolting over proposed State Board of Education changes that will eliminate teaching the U.S. Constitution and founding principles in some grade levels while including ideologies on white supremacy, LBGT pride, and gender.

Parent groups and conservative groups have mobilized to attend a public hearing at the Texas State Board of Education in Austin Tuesday in opposition to changes that they feel do not accurately reflect the accomplishments of Texas and America. The board could vote on the changes this week.

Left-leaning groups praised the first draft of the social studies curriculums proposed last month as more inclusive and progressive than past education standards.

Melissa Martin, a board member of Innovative Teachers of Texas, a conservative teacher’s group, told The Epoch Times the changes were “disappointing.”

“Texas is an exceptional state, and our students need to learn about our rich Texas history,” she said via text. “Rather than focusing on a globalist agenda, the curriculum should motivate our young Texans to develop into citizens who value family and citizenship of our great state and nation.”

Republican groups sent out a call to action identifying the removal of numerous Texas Education and Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) educational standards about America’s founding principles and the family to be replaced by more liberal ideas aligned with globalism.

Some of the high school level changes include removing “E Pluribus Unum” and “God We Trust” from the U.S. History curriculum.

Significant American government figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan were removed from U.S. Government studies.

A working committee drafting the rules said in notations about the deletion that the standards would be a better fit for middle school or moved into other lessons on executive power concerning government figures.

Other social studies curriculum standards that were part of a draft were just as problematic for critics.

In the 7th Grade, a standard claims that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s practice of federalism influenced the writing of the U.S. Constitution as a nod to diversity inclusion.

However, some scholars have debunked that connection.

The confederacy is also known as the League of the Iroquois, consisting of up to six upstate New York-based Native American tribes.

An 8th Grade standard on the intersectionality of (gay) pride, civil rights, and other movements was included.

The comment section mentioned Angela Davis, who advocates Critical Resistance Theory for abolishing the prison system. Also, Texas Rangers, an elite law enforcement group, were listed as “an instrument of oppression” during the clash between Texas Rangers and Mexican Americans and immigrants during the Mexican Revolution.

On the high school level of World Geography, the new standard included the “Gender Inequality Index” and the “World Happiness Report.”

Various citations of the “history of white supremacy” were included in the middle and high school level, where one standard analyzed the effects of “the New South” on diverse populations including, “sharecropping, convict leasing, Black Codes, white supremacy, and the creation of the Ku Klux Klan.”

Julie Pickren, a Republican running for State Board of Education in District 7, told The Epoch Times the state board sped up the process of deciding the TEKS for the next 12 years.

With more conservatives likely to take seats on the board in January, the process was fast-tracked. Work groups were put in place that produced “woke content,” including the use of the 1619 Project as the foundation of the African American Studies course, she said.

Pickren said other educational standards remove the family and focus on community instead. She noted that other states with conservative governors, such as Florida, Virginia, and South Dakota, have experienced similar moves but stopped them.

State Rep. Steve Toth (R-Woodlands), who championed banning Critical Race Theory in schools, told The Epoch Times the 1619 Project is not historically accurate and prohibited by state law.

“This is a concerted effort, a uniform effort all across the United States,” Toth said.

Potentially six statutes will be violated if the revisions go through, including those required by the Celebrate Freedom law highlighting America’s founding principles and one banning CRT, Pickren added.

Pickren is concerned that if the current board, which includes nine Republicans and six Democrats, passes the new educational standards, there will be no way to correct it.

“The board’s attitude, she said, is to “pass it to see what’s in it.”

Pickren believes the National School Board Association is pushing rewrites of social studies curriculum across the country. The NSBA wrote a letter to President Joe Biden’s administration led to the Justice Department targeting parents speaking out against CRT.

Toth said he intends to fight educational curriculum changes that break Texas law. He called for Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott to get involved.

State Rep. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), chairman of the Texas Freedom Caucus, wrote in a news release Aug. 29 that the proposed changes were unacceptable and, in many cases, illegal.

The release noted that a letter objecting to the changes had been sent to the SBOE.

“The proposed standards also eliminate Texas history as a standalone course, in favor of intertwining Texas history with other historical subjects, in effect watering down our heritage and putting it on the same level as all other cultures,” he wrote.

Hey, if anyone is in Austin tomorrow....

Texas Lawmakers Demand the State Board of Education Corrects Social Studies Standards
In a letter to the State Board of Education, the Texas House Freedom Caucus demands substantial changes to the reworked educational standards.

Sydnie Henry | August 29, 2022

https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-lawmakers-demand-the-state-board-of-education-corrects-social-studies-standards/

As the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) considers radical changes to the educational standards (TEKS) for K-8 social studies classes, the Texas House Freedom Caucus is calling for substantial corrections.

“The proposed changes, Mr. Chairman, are unacceptable and in many cases illegal,” said State Rep. Mayes Middleton (R–Wallisville), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, in a letter sent today to Keven Ellis (R), chairman of the SBOE:

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We are watching these changes closely and will not hesitate to intervene during the next legislative session, should the need arise, to protect Texas children from being further indoctrinated and taken advantage of. We demand the proposed changes be substantially amended before further action is taken.

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Middleton highlighted several issues with the current draft of the social studies standards, including forcing teachers to discuss controversial issues, eliminating Texas history as a standalone course in fourth and seventh grades, and guiding “children away from the Judeo-Christian foundation upon which our state and country was founded.”

Accordingly, Middleton says the “proposed standards for Grade 8 also violate H.B. 3979 by requiring educators to discuss the controversial issues such as the ‘pride’ movement, but only as framed alongside with the Civil Rights Movement.”

The removal of Texas history as a standalone course is of particular concern, with the House Freedom Caucus leader stating, “​​To trade the rich aspects of the standalone Texas history courses, which benefit all Texans and keeps Texas Texan, in favor of this watered-down approach is something we fervently demand you reject.”

Additionally, Middleton says the new seventh-grade standard requiring students to consider “different perspectives on the siege of the fall of the Alamo” is the “most substantial disgrace,” as it will “pollut[e] the minds of Texas children by asking them to consider the perspective of the murderous tyrant Santa Anna at the Alamo.”

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Allow us be frank: General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was a murderous, genocidal tyrant who stands right alongside Adolph Hitler, Mao Zedong, and Joseph Stalin in the annals of history. Under no circumstances should Texas children be taught the “other side” of the Nazi-like tyrants our forefathers valiantly fought to allow us to be where we all are today. While educators have a responsibility to help students understand differing perspectives on controversial issues, the proposed revisions require educators promote potentially dishonest accounts of the meaning of the Battle of the Alamo.

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“In Texas, we will always remember the Alamo, and we will not stand idly by as the SBOE turns Texas history on its head,” added Middleton.

Lastly, Middleton says the proposed revisions require that educators teach an unbalanced view of world religions and unnecessarily introduces children to occult practices, such as divination.


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Texas education board moves to delay updates to social studies curriculum after conservative pushback
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/30/..._eid=6276fc82d6
Opponents of the recommended changes, including Republican legislators, complained that they downplayed Texan and American exceptionalism and didn't present opposing views on the gay rights movement.
BY BRIAN LOPEZ AUG. 30, 20227:49 PM CENTRAL

After facing pressure from conservatives over proposed updates to the state’s social studies curriculum scheduled for this year, the State Board of Education on Tuesday took a step to delay the revision until 2025.

Instead, the board agreed in a 7-2 preliminary vote to only adjust the curriculum with directives to comply with the state’s 2021 law targeting “critical race theory.” Those include adding civics and literacy standards. A final vote on the decision is set to take place Friday, the last day of the board’s weeklong meeting.

“This is essentially a motion that’s saying we’re giving up,” said board member Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Democrat.

The elected board had been evaluating a recommendation that would have had Texas students spend kindergarten through second grade learning about Texas, U.S. and world history. From the third to fifth grades, students would have focused on world history. In grades sixth through eighth, students would have focused on American and Texas history.

That proposal would have eliminated dedicated years — fourth grade and seventh grade — for students to specifically study Texas history. In a separate vote on Tuesday, the board voted 8-5 in favor of using Republican board member Will Hickman’s proposed order of teaching history as a starting point. His method has children getting two dedicated years of U.S. history and two of Texas history.

The Texas Education Agency asserted that the original proposal would have increased the teaching of Texas history overall, as it would have been taught in more grade levels. But opponents argued it diminished the teaching of Texas exceptionalism.

On Monday, the Texas Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline Republican lawmakers in the state House, wrote a letter to the education board threatening legislative intervention if no “substantial changes” were made to the proposal.-- excerpt, rest at link above ---

State Board of Education Delays Social Studies Changes After Grassroots Pushback
“We’re not going to hug this one out.”

Sydnie Henry | August 31, 2022

https://texasscorecard.com/state/state-board-of-education-delays-social-studies-changes-after-grassroots-pushback/

On Tuesday evening, following numerous testimonies from parents and activists, the State Board of Education voted to halt consideration of controversial changes to the social studies standards until 2025.

Parents, grassroots activists, and even some lawmakers pushed back against the radical changes suggested for K-8 social studies standards, including discussions on “pride” in eighth grade.

Notably, their elected representatives on the SBOE listened.

After five Democrat SBOE members left the room, refusing to vote on the motion to delay and give the SBOE until 2025 to work on the new standards, the final vote was 7-2.

SBOE members Will Hickman (R–Houston) and Ruben Cortez Jr. (D–Brownsville) voted against the motion, with Hickman saying, “I voted against because … I just don’t see the need to postpone [on using the new framework].”

Parents and activists, like Leigh Wambsgans, worked alongside grassroots organizations (such as the True Texas Project, Grassroots America – We The People, Jaco Booyens Ministries, and Apollos in Education) to oppose the leftwing takeover of the state’s social studies curriculum.

The Texas House Freedom Caucus, whose members had stated their opposition to the proposed framework, celebrated the decision and noted it would be “watching closely in addition to looking for any legislative solutions that can be implemented between now and then.”


Senate Bill 3, the purported critical race theory ban passed by the Legislature last year, includes additional civics requirements for students and teachers, as well as language mandating that teachers cannot be forced to discuss controversial issues in classes.

The SBOE is required to adjust the current educational standards for social studies to include the new requirements from SB 3 before the end of the year, which will now be the only changes to the social studies standards until 2025.

In the meantime, the SBOE is expected to investigate the best framework for social studies classes moving forward.


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