1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

The Texas State Board of Education is meeting today and tomorrow, February 25-26, in a rare special session called outside its normal schedule, to finalize sweeping social studies curriculum changes that will shape what 5.5 million Texas students learn about history, culture, and civic life. This process was rushed from the start. Work Group A was given one week to accept an invitation to Austin and just two days to review course outlines already drafted by outside content advisors. Texas Education Code Section 28.002(c) explicitly requires direct participation from educators and parents in this process. That requirement has been ignored. The content advisors driving these drafts are not primarily classroom teachers. Most are right-leaning university faculty or affiliated with conservative think tanks. Only three were Texas-based educators without ideological alignment. When qualified Texas teachers reduced what even board members admitted were bloated content lists, some advisors reportedly grew hostile, particularly when Eurocentric and explicitly Christian themes were trimmed alongside other selective narratives. SBOE Chair Aaron Kinsey then unilaterally restricted the work groups’ authority, limiting them to trimming subtopics rather than meaningfully reshaping the framework. That is not professional input. That is a predetermined outcome dressed up as a process. This is happening right now, and it cannot wait. I’m asking you to act today. Call publicly for the SBOE to halt any final votes this week until a transparent, educator-led review is completed in full compliance with Texas Education Code Section 28.002(c). Demand that TEA Commissioner Mike Morath explain publicly why work groups were given two days to review materials that took months to draft behind closed doors. And require that any future content advisory panels include a majority of active Texas classroom teachers, not think tank affiliates paid to push an agenda.