As the State Board of Education considers significant changes to the state’s social studies standards, it appears poised to join the Texas Legislature and the Texas Education Agency in the state-directed distortion of Texas public school education. This effort involves changing, minimizing or denying historical events that are supported by well-established evidence.
One of the most egregious examples of such efforts is a 2021 Texas law, now part of the Education Code, stating that educators may not teach that “slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality.”
This description of slavery is patently false and puts teachers in the awkward position of having to lie to students or risk sanction. The Constitution itself accommodated slavery through provisions such as the Three-Fifths Clause, which counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person. This provision remained in the Constitution until 1868, making it difficult to characterize slavery as a “deviation” from the nation’s founding framework.
In addition, it is noteworthy that prominent architects of the Constitution — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison — all owned slaves.
Another law that is an example of the ideological reshaping of history involves the LGBTQ+ community. The Education Code states that teachers may not “provide instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students.” In practice, that means a teacher can say that British mathematician Alan Turing was considered the father of computer science and a World War II hero because he helped break Nazi communication codes, but the teacher can’t say that after the war, Turing was arrested and convicted of homosexuality and died at age 41 in an apparent suicide.
This is revisionism by omission; in this case, an important part of Turing’s story remains unknown to students. It is as if LGBTQ+ people don’t exist, which is a disservice to all students but especially those in the LGBTQ+ community.
And this week, the State Board of Education discussed overhauling the social studies curricular standards, with proposals requiring students to learn about milestones in Christian history and the lives and prophecy of Biblical figures. In addition, students would be required to read stories from the Old and New Testaments in various grade levels.
Clearly, the secular study of world religions and their impact on history has a place in K-12 education. However, embedding this explicitly Christian content throughout a statewide social studies curriculum elevates one religious tradition above others and raises serious concerns about the separation of church and state. This religious content can be taught in private schools but does not belong in the public school curriculum.
I am alarmed by the assault on teachers’ and districts’ rights to curricular and pedagogical choices. People across the political spectrum should be troubled by this development and voice their concerns.
Whether the issue is slavery, LGBTQ history, or the role of religion in public education, the state’s responsibility is to ensure students learn history as accurately and completely as possible — not as political leaders wish it had been.
James (Kal) Kallison is a former Eanes school district trustee and former faculty member at the College of Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. He now serves on the board of the University of Texas Elementary Charter School. This piece reflects his views as an individual.