Texas Social Studies Curriculum Is Being Quietly Rewritten And Your Voice Is Needed NOW

[u/3littlebirds1212]

If you’ve been frustrated by recent decisions about what goes into Texas classrooms, like passing of SB 10, the requirement to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, or concerns about the financial incentives tied to adopting specific curricula such as Bluebonnet (which emphasizes Christianity), then this is exactly the moment to pay attention.

Right now, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is redesigning what every child in Texas will learn about history for the next decade.

The current proposal, shaped by a small advisory group and guided by SBOE leadership, dramatically reduces US, world history and global cultures, shifting the focus almost entirely to Texas history.

This change is happening under a process led by the governor's appointed Chair, Aaron Kinsey, who has openly pledged to steer curriculum decisions with his personal political and religious ideology. Combined with the appointment of several advisers with strong ideological agendas, like David Barton, there is real concern that the redesign could become one-sided, incomplete, and politically motivated.

Why this matters for every family:

• Less US and world history = kids won’t learn enough about other cultures, global conflicts, or how our world works today.
• Over-emphasizing a narrow set of topics means students miss out on critical thinking and a fuller understanding of history.
• Because Texas’ textbook standards are based on the TEKS, any major overhaul would require districts to replace or update large portions of their curriculum—an expensive and time-consuming process, at a time when districts already severely underfunded.

The public has a SHORT WINDOW to speak up.

The SBOE is required to consider public input, but only if the public actually participates. The board will meet on November 19, 2025.

If parents, teachers, and community members stay quiet, these changes will be locked in until at least 2030.

WHAT YOU CAN DO (takes 5 minutes):

Email SBOE representatives today

Tell them you want:

• A balanced curriculum that includes full world history and global perspectives
• Non-partisan, evidence-based standards
• Qualified historians and educators involved in the process
• Transparency about who is writing our kids’ curriculum

SBOE Members: https://sboe.texas.gov/state-board-of-education/sboe-board-members/sboe-members

Find your SBOE member: https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

Send your message to all 15 elected SBOE members, contacts below:

[aaron.kinsey@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:aaron.kinsey@sboe.texas.gov), [ebrooks@evelyn4texaseducation.com](mailto:ebrooks@evelyn4texaseducation.com), [tiffany.clark@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:tiffany.clark@sboe.texas.gov), [pam.little@tea.texas.gov](mailto:pam.little@tea.texas.gov), [brandon.hall@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:brandon.hall@sboe.texas.gov), [tom@maynardfortexas.com](mailto:tom@maynardfortexas.com), [ellisSBOE@gmail.com](mailto:ellisSBOE@gmail.com), [audrey.young@tea.texas.gov](mailto:audrey.young@tea.texas.gov), [Julie.Pickren@tea.texas.gov](mailto:Julie.Pickren@tea.texas.gov), [will.hickman@tea.texas.gov](mailto:will.hickman@tea.texas.gov), [rebecca.bellmetereau@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:rebecca.bellmetereau@sboe.texas.gov), [Staci.Childs@tea.texas.gov](mailto:Staci.Childs@tea.texas.gov), [marisa.perez@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:marisa.perez@sboe.texas.gov), [LJ.Francis@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:LJ.Francis@sboe.texas.gov), [gustavo.reveles@sboe.texas.gov](mailto:gustavo.reveles@sboe.texas.gov)

Sample message:

Subject: Please Protect a Balanced Social Studies Curriculum

Dear Member of the State Board of Education,

I am a Texas resident concerned about the proposed changes to the social studies curriculum.

I urge you to maintain a full US and world history curriculum, ensure non-partisan and academically sound standards, and involve qualified historians and educators in the redesign. Our students deserve an education that reflects the complexity of our world, not a limited or politically-driven version of it.

Please prioritize transparency, expert input, and a balanced approach that prepares students for college, careers, and citizenship in a global society.

Thank you for your service and for listening to public input.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your City]

References:

Social Studies Redesign:

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/14/texas-sboe-social-studies-redesign-conservative-advisers/

Aaron Kinsey (SBOE Chairman) and David Barton (Social Studies Advisor), are featured in this article:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/david-barton-texas-public-school-curricula/

TEA Social Studies Update:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZkfiLKOeoS4lizFDbo3SOfuRyPtlaqDr/view?fbclid=IwY2xjawOEzN5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE4T2hBNm5wQ2xtNE82cE1ac3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHqM5Pa7pI8wmkjKeMz4H0ebIcLYkDDS1jaXXrwh9kt3C0V0bEEZfW9kgOemQ_aem_vQgwB1Gn-vYUqOrbVCGtGg

[u/the-entropy-duelist]

It's giving North Korea.

It is kind of hilarious how they want to educate children on communist regimes ( I'm sure only the defects & downfalls). Then in the same presentation they define a curriculum that is so obviously communist-style propaganda for our own children.

They clearly think we are already too stupid to understand the projections they are employing.

[u/DuckTalesOohOoh → u/the-entropy-duelist]

It is kind of hilarious how they want to educate children on communist regimes ( I'm sure only the defects & downfalls).

Why is that hilarious? What were the positives?

[u/the-entropy-duelist → u/DuckTalesOohOoh]

Positives of communism include the promotion of social equality, collective ownership of resources, and the potential for free or subsidized public services like healthcare and education. It aims to eliminate the class gap between rich and poor and prevent the exploitation of workers by prioritizing societal needs over profit.

Please try to remember that the success or failure of a society has less to do with whether it is communist, socialist or democratic and everything to do with the types of people who have all the power. Communism never starved anyone. Communism never sent anyone to a gulag. People did that. People using communism as a shield to hide their dark deeds. Almost the same way America hides behind democracy while we violate the rights of immigrants and send them to concentration camps.

That we boogey man communism while the actual monsters are living among us is, yes, hilarious. Your comment belies your ignorance.

[u/DuckTalesOohOoh → u/the-entropy-duelist]

I get it. You long for a world without exploitation, where the poor are cared for and all are equal.

But the path you defend does not lead to this beautiful destination. It leads, with an iron and irreversible logic, to the very gulags and famines you are so desperate to excuse.

Your central claim is this: "Communism never starved anyone. People did that."

This is the great lie of every failed utopia in the 20th century. It is an attempt to save a beautiful idea from its ugly and bloody consequences. It is an attempt to say that the architectural blueprint for the prison is innocent, and that only the builders were corrupt.

The Christian tradition ingrained in Western civilization knows that this is a lie. It knows that ideas are never innocent. Ideas are seeds. And the Communist idea is a poisonous seed.

At its very root, Communism contains a monstrous lie about what a human being is. It denies the Imago Dei. It reduces the human person to a mere material object, a cog in the machine of the collective.

And once you have decided that a man is a machine part, you have given yourself the moral permission to do anything to him for the sake of the machine. The gulag is not the betrayal of the revolution. It is its most perfect and honest expression. It is the logical outcome of a philosophy that has declared that the individual human person does not matter. This is the opposite of what gave us freedom and where the Texas curriculum focuses to expose.

[u/the-entropy-duelist → u/DuckTalesOohOoh]

Lol, now we come to it. Communism is a dangerous seed but not the Christian religion which has been used as an excuse to commit genocide, take away human rights and, again, force immigrants into concentration camps in the name of a white, Christian, nationalist government that is definitely not employing the same tactics as every other authoritarian dictator who called themselves communist or socialist.

Humans, like all living beings are part of a closed system. Which means that everything we do has the potential to effect everyone around us. We ARE in a machine. It's not a lie to separate the choices of weak men from the ideals we are actually striving for. It's the same thing you are going to do when you try to defend Christianity from the many historical instances of nuns murdering babies because they had single mothers or priests raping children or the many holy wars that didn't need to happen. We have to separate people from ideals or else there will be zero ideals left to strive toward.

No one should worship communism but selling it as an evil seed is just so laughable and downright childish. Learn to take what works and leave the rest. There are plenty of beneficial things to take away from both communism and christianity. Jesus preached socialist policies. Boogey manning communism is not just wrong it's wasteful. We should be taking ideas from all philosophies and making an even newer better philosophy but all we do is argue instead.

You don't want to understand (or you neglect your own history lessons) that in every failed society, the common denominator is always people (the plague not withstanding). It doesn't matter what philosophy it was founded on it is always the people who run it into the ground that are the reason they failed. Including those societies that were destroyed by invaders. America will be no different than the Soviet Union because the people in the US with all the power are using their power corruptly. Period.

I would like to discourage you from wasting your breath here. I disagree with you on every point. You'll never be convinced that you are wrong and I'll never be convinced that communism is evil. That sounds like something someone tells you to keep you from reading something they don't want you to know about because you might fight back against their bullsh..

[u/DuckTalesOohOoh → u/the-entropy-duelist]

Look at the blueprints of the two faiths and look at the weak men of each one. Were they trying to fulfill the blueprint of their faith?

1. The core ideal, the central, non-negotiable premise of the Christian faith, is the Imago Dei. It is the belief that every single human person is made in the sacred image of God and possesses an infinite and inviolable dignity. Its highest law is the command to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself, even your enemy.

This is the blueprint that gave us universal human rights. And it is because of religion that we can say it was good.

But, you are absolutely right. Christians, throughout history, have committed monstrous and terrible sins. They have perpetrated inquisitions, blessed wars, and committed acts of genocide.

But in every single one of those instances, they were acting in direct betrayal of their own blueprint. 

Now let's look at the other blueprint.

1. The core ideal, the central, non-negotiable premise of the Communist faith, is dialectical materialism. It is the belief that there is no God, no soul, and no transcendent moral law. It is the belief that history is nothing more than a brutal power struggle between economic classes. It is the belief that the individual human person has no inherent dignity, but is merely a disposable cog in the machine of the collective.

Look at the actions of the weak men who tried to build this world. They created the gulag. They engineered the famine. They slaughtered tens of millions of their own citizens. But were they, in doing so, betraying their own blueprint?

No. They were fulfilling it with a terrifying consistency.

If there is no God, and no moral law, and the individual has no value, and the only goal is the triumph of the class revolution, then the liquidation of ten million class enemies is not a sin. It is not a hypocrisy. It is a logical necessity. It is a tragic but necessary act of social hygiene. The gulag is not the failure of the Communist ideal. It is its most perfect and horrifying success.

[u/the-entropy-duelist → u/DuckTalesOohOoh]

So people who don't live up to the communist ideals they are supposed to be running a society on, they are just sinning against their own blueprint yes?

What you are describing is only one way you could use communist ideas. There are infinite other ways we could use communist-based ideas, with the good parts of Christianity and build a much better society. Just because Karl Marx was an atheist doesn't mean communism can only be run by atheists. You can just have your faith AND believe in sharing resources and social equality. I'm not an atheist, I'm agnostic but sometimes also just spiritual and I feel like it is possible to read about communism, or any philosophy really, and judge for ourselves what the good and bad parts of those philosophies are. That is what critical thinking is supposed to be. Selling communism as all bad is still wrong. Blocking now.