Despite public pushback, Texas social studies overhaul moves to next phase
Students write in notebooks in a Texas classroom. (FOX 7 Austin)
AUSTIN, Texas - The framework for the next generation of Texas' public school social studies curriculum has been approved to move forward as the state works to establish a new baseline for that area of education.
The split vote moving the reworked standards along in the process was preceded by public pleas to diversify the state's approach to history and social learning.
Texas social studies vote
The latest:
Thursday's 8-5 vote approved a list of core ideas that the working groups of the Texas State Board of Education will use to develop the new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for social studies. The list was amended during an hours-long work session that carried over from Wednesday night.
The plan received pushback from many members of the public, who attended the meeting to address the board with their concerns about the direction in which Texas education appears to be heading. The majority of speakers, who were largely educators or students, said they feared the new standards lean too heavily into "Texas-centric" teaching, and ignore the majority of world history, religion and culture.
The board approved the preliminary teaching plan for social studies in September 2025 with an 8-7 vote, catching the public's eye with the apparent shift from a broader framework for social studies to a Texas-heavy plan for education.
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What's next:
Thursday's vote will be followed by the fine-tuning of the standards by the working groups. Those standards are set to be adopted in June.
Once the standards are in place, they're set to be implemented in public schools in 2030, alongside a standardized reading list that's also currently in the works.
Texas residents weigh in
Several of those speaking in opposition to the standards were current or former educators. One speaker noted that only three ancient civilizations – Greeks, Romans and Hebrews – were mentioned in the list approved Thursday.
Another Texas educator said that ancient Israel is mentioned in connection to American and Texas history, while Native Americans are largely excluded. This marks a "selective, false narrative," the speaker said.
"America and Texas were shaped by indigenous people of North America, European colonization, Spanish and Mexican governance, and African labor," said the educator. "Invoking ancient Israel as a foundation to America and Texas while disregarding the continuous presence of indigenous people represents a selective view of history."
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Another concerned speaker brought up the apparently Christian-centric religious studies. According to the speaker, the main mentions of Islam in the proposal are in subtopics on terrorism and globalism, while the historical impact of the religion's beginnings and spread are largely omitted.
One speaker was Caleb Denton, an eighth grader from Round Rock, Texas. Denton told the board he's a lover of history and social studies, and he attended out of concern for the proposed changes.
"These recommendations place nearly all historical learning within a Texas-only focus," Denton said. "This approach would limit students’ understanding of the world, and remove the global context that helps history make sense."
Texas school reading list
Dig deeper:
Along with the new standards for social studies, Texas is working to become the first state with a standardized reading list from K-12 across all public school districts. The state said such a list would be helpful for learning and testing for students moving to new districts, but critics are concerned with the content of the list, which includes sections of the Christian Bible.
Texas education board delays vote on reading list including Bible passages
The list, as it was presented by the Texas Education Agency this month, would mandate all public schools teach passages of the Bible in classrooms.
Alongside nearly 300 books, 11 selections are taken directly from Christian scripture. Three other texts – "The Golden Rule," "The Parable of the Prodigal Son," and "The Road to Damascus" – are Biblical retellings taken from Texas' Bluebonnet Learning curriculum. Other texts aren't directly from the Bible, but are either theological or have strong Christian symbolism.
Along with worries about an unbalanced curriculum related to religion, teachers are concerned that requiring so many books will overload syllabi, forcing them to drop texts they've been using to educate students for years.
The board was set to vote on the reading list proposal during this week's meeting, but after an amended list was proposed and time began to run short, the vote was tabled until April.
The Source: Information in this article comes from the Texas Education Agency, a public meeting of the state's education board and previous FOX Local coverage.