The Texas State Board of Education is scheduled to take final votes on Friday, June 26, on two changes to the state’s public-school curriculum: a rewrite of the social studies standards and a new statewide reading list that would add Bible stories to required reading.
The education board has taken two votes before it this week, the Texas Tribune’s Jaden Edison reported, with a final vote on both expected Friday. If adopted, both changes would take effect in the 2030-31 school year, affecting what millions of students read and study.
The reading list cleared a preliminary vote earlier in the week. Board members voted 9-5 on June 23 to trim several titles from the proposed list, Community Impact reported, advancing the measure toward Friday’s final vote. The list includes about a dozen stories from the Bible, among them the account of David and Goliath in second grade and direct biblical excerpts beginning in fourth grade. A Tribune review of the selections detailed which passages are included across grade levels.
The social studies proposal would revise how the state teaches history, geography, economics and government. According to the Texas Tribune, it would eliminate the current sixth-grade world cultures course, reduce coverage of world history outside the European tradition, and place more emphasis on Texas and United States history; the full framework is laid out in the proposed rule posted by the Texas Education Agency.
The Tribune identified specific changes that have drawn attention, reporting that a sociology standard requiring students to understand “the impact of race and ethnicity on society” does not appear in the new plan, that one lesson characterizes the World War II incarceration of Japanese American families as a “contribution” to the U.S. military effort, and that a Civil Rights Movement standard names Thurgood Marshall, Barbara Jordan and Hector P. Garcia but not Martin Luther King Jr.
Supporters describe the package as a needed correction. Conservative leaders and organizations, including the Texas Public Policy Foundation, frame the revisions as “the final battle” in an effort to refocus instruction on U.S. and Texas history and to remove what they describe as lessons that portray the country in an unduly negative light. The overhaul was developed with a nine-member advisory panel, and the board gave the reading list and standards preliminary approval this week before Friday’s scheduled final votes.
We reported this week that a large coalition of Republican House members, including House Public Education Chairman Brad Buckley, sent a letter to the SBOE urging it to pass the two measures without substantive amendments.
Critics raise objections on both the religious and the historical changes. Some students, educators and progressive groups say the proposals reduce racial, ethnic and gender inclusion and elevate Christianity over other faiths, the Tribune reported, while some teachers argue the standards emphasize memorization over analysis.
Some historians have flagged what they call factual errors in the draft. The reading-list vote in particular intersects with longstanding constitutional questions about religion in public schools, a tension that has surrounded similar Texas proposals in recent years.
The board’s decisions Friday will shape Texas classroom instruction for years once the standards take effect in 2030-31, and because of the size of the Texas textbook market, the choices can influence materials sold beyond the state. The votes mark one of the most consequential statewide curriculum actions in years, separate from the school-finance and school-choice debates that have dominated recent Texas education news.