Texas Values Spokesperson: There were ‘serious problems’ with first drafts of Texas social studies school standards rewrites

The proposed first draft of the State Board of Education’s (SBOE) revised Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) social studies standards had “serious problems,” said the government relations director of Texas Values.

The SBOE had allowed a “work group” of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to write the drafts, and the rewrites have now been delayed until 2025.

“The first draft that came back that was available to the public that the working group worked on had a lot of serious problems,” Mary Elizabeth Castle told Collin Times. “I mean, they deleted phrases like, ‘In God We Trust,’ ‘E pluribus unum,’ and they deleted references to Moses and the Ten Commandments.”

“They also had different ideologies presented in them,” she said. “So overall, the public and many parents were not happy with the results.”

Castle said that the drafts had not been changed for a second reading of the proposed standards, and so the SBOE decided to delay the entire process until 2025.

She said that the drafts had removed “references to religious liberty” and “things that are positive about our country's founding,” as well as adding “different infiltrations of LGBT issues.”

“Today’s vote to stop the radical ‘woke’ takeover of the Social Studies TEKS is a victory for parents and kids in Texas,” said Castle in a statement after the SBOE voted to delay the rewrites. “Now, the State Board of Education has time to get it right and consider better TEKS that will continue to teach about patriotic historical values and Judeo-Christian heritage in American and Texas History.”

Castle said she doesn’t think there’s anyone to blame for the draft, but said, “This is the first time that I've seen a draft that came to the State Board of Education, the public, and it has this many issues.”

The social studies standards rewrite has become an issue in the Republican primary race for District 12 of the SBOE, in which challenger Jamie Kohlmann is facing incumbent Pam Little.

Little, the vice chair of the SBOE, voted to delay the social studies rewrites, but Kohlmann said the board members “played defense, rather than offense.”

“They originally empowered the left-leaning TEA to develop a proposal that the Board ultimately needed to reject because the proposal was so radical,” Kohlmann posted on Facebook. “This was a solvable problem – we could have had values aligned education experts draft those proposals.”

Castle said there haven’t been any recent meetings of the SBOE to discuss the rewrites, but stakeholder meetings are happening this month at which the next steps might be discussed.