“You now basically have a week to take action to prevent this from going down,” warns activist Jaco Booyens.
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), which sets the state standards for public education, is deciding on a proposed chronological framework and new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS)—standards for curriculum that guide what students are expected to know and understand—for social studies.
Per the new chronological framework that the SBOE is considering implementing, instruction for K-8 will radically change, and many parents and educators across the state are concerned with the direction of the new TEKS.
This new framework and TEKS will be in place for the next 12 years if accepted by the SBOE.
According to Booyens, “They’ve [SBOE] turned a corner on the quarter-mile, and they are sprinting to the finish line to fundamentally change your children and this nation before the next election.”
Additionally, Booyens says the goal of this new framework and TEKS is to “create global citizens.”
“Not Texas citizens, not proud Americans,” he added, but “well-abiding subjects of the global citizen program.”
It begins in kindergarten.
“They’re breaking the nuclear family. … What does that mean? They’re teaching that the family does not raise the child—yes, teaching this in kindergarten—the community raises the child, and after the community, it’s the state’s job to raise the child, and then the federal government,” said Booyens.
First grade will cover community values.
“They’re going to teach community values as it relates to state and federal government—not individual liberty, not liberty and justice for all, but community values,” says Booyens. “What does your community say? Do you fit in with the community? Are you of the mindset of the community?”
Later on, we’re going to start talking gender and sexuality.
Based on Booyens’ research, 6,165 minutes of early social studies education in third through eighth grade will be dedicated to early civilizations circa 2000-600 B.C.
What will be out is Paul Revere—gone. Sam Adams—you’re gone. Oh, Abraham Lincoln? You’re gone. That’s right, no more Abraham Lincoln. Roosevelt’s gone. JFK is gone. Reagan is gone, and Trump is gone. Didn’t exist. James Bonham is gone—fundamentally eliminating American history.
The new focus on world history at much younger ages will deprive children, who cannot yet comprehend advanced abstract concepts, of foundational world views.
In third grade, Booyens warns that certain words in the civil rights TEKS suggest that more will be covered than the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
They’re going to teach [the] civil rights movement, and they’re going to blend it in a thing called “intersectionality.” Mark that word. “Intersectionality” means they’re going to intersect certain things from one set of society and blend it with the other and just throw it in a blender and create new history through intersectionality and civil rights.
“They’re going to teach the LGBTQ rights movement under the heading of “intersectionality” as it connects with the civil rights movement. So, taking a 2022 gay pride month and blending it all the way back to the civil rights movement,” says Booyens.
Under the proposed chronological framework, Texas history will no longer be taught in fourth grade.
“Now they’re gonna teach world religion plus civilizations—Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,” said Booyens, adding that “5,265 minutes will be spent of a fourth grader’s life to teach Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism.”
We’re going to teach Angela Davis in fourth grade. No Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln didn’t make the list. But Angela Davis is being taught. She’s the founder of critical resistance. So, your fourth graders are gonna know Angela Davis, but they will not know Abraham Lincoln.
In fifth grade, world history continues with a “deep dive into Chinese dynasties.”
“Why does a fifth-grader need to understand the Chinese dynasties but he doesn’t understand the Founding Fathers, the founding documents?” asks Booyens.
“I want my kid to be rounded,” he continued. “I want my kid to be cultured. I want him to know the world. I’m an immigrant. I’ve lived on three continents. I want my kids to be cultured as well, but they better understand they live in Texas and know Texas law. They know that we need a border and understand ‘In God We Trust.'”
Booyens warns that if parents don’t take this seriously on Tuesday, all of this and more will be adopted before the new SBOE takes office in January following the November elections.
“Be nice but firm,” says Booyens, and “email Governor Abbott. Call his office. Email Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Call his office. Email [education] Commissioner Mike Morath. Call his office.”
“Call every single state school board member in Texas–the Texas SBOE—and in kindness, with the facts which we have armed you with and we arm you with even more, including all these facts on our website. You draft an email and say, ‘We do not approve of these new revised standards for TEKS.’”
Do it kindly, take action today, and do not stop for the next seven days.
The SBOE’s first reading of the TEKS will be on Tuesday, August 30. Citizens will have the chance to testify before the SBOE regarding the content of the TEKS and the proposed framework.
If the SBOE gives initial approval to the direction of the TEKS next week, the public will only have 30 days to submit written comments before the SBOE’s final vote in November.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
