Tell Texas: Teach History, Not Christian Nationalism

Texas education officials could approve sweeping new high school social studies standards this Friday — and students could be stuck with them for years.

The Texas State Board of Education is considering new standards for U.S. history, world history, government, and geography after already approving major K–8 changes and a required reading list that includes Bible stories. Educators and students have raised serious concerns that the rewrite gives Christianity outsized emphasis while diminishing other religious, racial, cultural, and historical perspectives.

Public schools should teach students about Christianity. They should also teach Islam, Judaism, other faiths, and the full complexity of American and world history. What they should never do is privilege one religious or political worldview over everyone else.

Tell the Texas State Board of Education: Vote NO on standards that favor just one religion, erase other perspectives, and shut teachers out. Send them back for a fair, accurate rewrite.

The results of politicians' interference in this process are clear. Proposed lessons connect biblical imagery to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, while critics have challenged the standards’ treatment of Islam and the elimination of the current sixth-grade world cultures course. Teachers have also said they were pushed aside during the revision process while conservative activists gained greater influence.

Texas students deserve better than a curriculum shaped by political pressure. Christian students, Muslim students, Jewish students, nonreligious students, and students of every background deserve history classes grounded in evidence — not favoritism.

And what Texas does here could become a blueprint for other states. If one of the country’s largest public-school systems normalizes standards that favor one religious worldview and sideline educators, political activists elsewhere will have a model to copy.

The good news is this vote is not a done deal. The board already postponed these same four high school courses after members raised concerns about errors and rushing the process. That proves the standards can still be changed when enough people speak up.

The board has a choice this week: approve a deeply contested rewrite, or listen to educators, students, and families and get it right.

Add your name now and demand that the Texas State Board of Education reject these standards before they become the new reality in Texas classrooms.

Thanks for all that you do,
Matt from the Swarm