Texas Board of Education to vote on first state-developed textbooks Nov. 18

For the first time, Texas education officials will consider adopting a set of state-developed reading and math textbooks Nov. 18.

The video above is from a previous report.

The Texas Education Agency released thousands of pages of elementary school reading and language arts, kindergarten through eighth grade math, and algebra 1 curriculum materials in May. The textbooks were developed under House Bill 1605, a 2023 law that overhauled Texas' public school curriculum standards.

Schools would not be required to use the state materials, deemed Bluebonnet Learning. However, districts that do so would receive up to $60 per student to purchase and print them. Districts currently receive about $171 per student, plus $16 for emergent bilingual students, to acquire textbooks, according to the TEA.

The State Board of Education will take public testimony and vote Nov. 18 on 142 materials proposed by the TEA and other publishers. The state-developed textbooks have come under fire for their frequent use of Bible stories, which critics say are not appropriate for public schools. Supporters argue biblical texts provide important historical context and teach students about morality.

What you need to know

SBOE members will vote to approve, reject or take no action on all proposed instructional materials Nov. 18, according to the board's agenda. School districts can begin using any of the approved materials during the 2025-26 school year.

Nearly 300 people were trained to conduct an extensive review of the proposed materials earlier this year, according to the TEA. Over 400 Texans submitted online public comments on the materials this summer, and 70 people spoke about the materials during a Sept. 10 meeting.

Many speakers said the Bluebonnet textbooks promote Christianity over other world religions, which could alienate students. TEA officials have insisted the materials are not meant to proselytize and will help students build cross-curricular knowledge.

Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University, said the state textbooks "violate parents' rights to direct the moral and religious training of their children."

"I support public schools teaching about religion, including the Bible, in legal, age-appropriate ways," Chancey told the board Sept. 10. "Unfortunately, these materials do not do that. ... They are very religiously biased. They emphasize the Bible more than other religious texts, Jesus more than other religious figures and Christianity more than other religious traditions."

Proponents of the Bluebonnet materials said they would give students important, age-appropriate historical context and ease workloads for teachers, some of whom create their own lesson plans outside of instructional time.

"There's so much richness in biblical literature, and nine out of 10 homes have a Bible in them in America," said Cindi Castilla, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum. "You can read rich literature (and) learn character traits through biblical stories, and you can understand more about where our law comes from."

Giving students the tools they need to succeed and supporting teachers were the TEA's top priorities when creating the textbooks, Shannon Trejo, the TEA's deputy commissioner of school programs, told Community Impact in July.

Zooming in

The TEA updated its proposed instructional materials Oct. 16, about one month before the SBOE vote. The agency used feedback from the Sept. 10 meeting and other public input to "further refine, edit and ready the product for final submission... ensuring the materials are aligned with state standards and values," according to a news release.

One change the TEA made was to a second grade lesson on the Book of Esther, which tells the story of a Jewish woman who stops a plot to kill all the Jewish people in Persia. An official, Haman, rolled dice to determine when he wanted to attack the Jewish people.

A previous version of the Bluebonnet materials instructed teachers to roll dice to demonstrate Haman's decision. That activity was cut from the final proposal after Texans testified it was "offensive" and antisemitic.

"This is shocking, offensive and just plain wrong," Sharyn Vane, a Jewish parent, said Sept. 10. "Do we ask elementary schoolers to pretend to be Hitler?"

Texans can view the state-developed textbooks here, and all proposed instructional materials are available here.

This article comes from our ABC13 partners at Community Impact Newspapers.