The Texas State Board of Education is once again revamping how kids learn social studies, and—surprise!—the advisory panel they picked leans so far right it might tip over. Instead of a broad crew of historians and educators, the board went with a lineup that includes exactly one current Texas public school educator and several professional culture-war influencers who believe expertise is fake, America was founded as a church youth group, and that talking about racism is somehow racist.
Among the highlights: David Barton, a man whose book got recalled for not being “adequately supported” by facts (a rough trait for someone rewriting history), is now advising what children should learn about history. Another addition is Jordan Adams, a Hillsdale-trained activist who insists “there is no such thing as expertise,” which is definitely the kind of thing you say before performing your own appendectomy with a butter knife.
The new framework the board already approved shifts classrooms away from world history and cultures—because who needs to understand the planet you live on?—and instead piles even more Texas and U.S. history onto kids starting in kindergarten. Sixth-grade world cultures? Deleted. Geography? Optional. Diversity? Suspicious. Anything that isn’t yee-haw American exceptionalism? Better not risk it.
Educators and even some Republicans are sounding the alarm that kids’ actual learning seems like an afterthought, replaced by ideology polishing. Teachers worry that students won’t get the broad understanding they need for a world that—unfortunately—does not revolve around Texas. Meanwhile, activists on the panel insist that this isn’t political and everyone should calm down, which is generally what you say right before bulldozing the old curriculum and replacing it with a patriotic coloring book.
And while board members argue about indoctrination, Texas students continue scoring below grade level in social studies—something that probably won’t be fixed by firing world history into the sun and replacing it with more Alamo, more founders, and more “Judeo-Christian values” just to make sure the kids never accidentally learn about, say, India.
If the goal is to raise students who “love their country,” is step one really teaching them less about the rest of the world—and less about the parts of America some politicians would rather forget?
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/14/texas-sboe-social-studies-redesign-conservative-advisers/
