In a preliminary vote, the State Board of Education unanimously rejected a proposal to remove the Travis Letter and the heroic defenders of the Alamo from the seventh-grade social studies curriculum.
The proposal originated from a workgroup tasked with making changes to the state’s social studies curriculum requirements statewide.
As word of the State Board of Education’s consideration of the proposal spread around the state, Republican officials statewide, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Land Commissioner George P. Bush, and US Sen. Ted Cruz all spoke out against the political correctness infiltrating education.
As the board has held meetings this week in Austin, it became immediately obvious that the pressure from those officials and activists that showed up to make their voice heard had all but assured the proposal was dead.
Others have noted, however, that there is even more to be concerned about in the proposed curriculum changes.
Calling the Alamo proposals “just the tip of iceberg,” the organization Texas Values highlighted additional proposed changes, including references to the religious reasons for why the 13 colonies were established and eliminating Moses as a major influence on laws and America’s founding documents.
Gov. Greg Abbott once again took to Twitter to voice his opposition to those proposals, saying “eliminating Moses as one our law-givers is contrary to factual history and to [U.S. Supreme Court] precedent.”
Eliminating Moses as one of our law-givers is contrary to factual history and to #SCOTUS precedent. I successfully defended the Ten Commandments on the Capitol Grounds arguing that they were formative to our laws. Moses & the Commandments are in SCOTUS Building. #txlege #tcot https://t.co/ABFo81d5pa
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 13, 2018
Though the board will not finally approve changes to the curriculum until November, these proposals appears to be dead-on-arrival as well, with the board rejecting these proposals preliminarily as they continue to meet this week.
Concerned Texans can review the new proposed standards here and contact their SBOE member to make their voices heard.
