<\/p>\n
People participate in an interfaith funeral-themed protest outside the Barbara Jordan Building in Austin on Monday, June 22, 2026, as the State Board of Education considers proposed social studies standards that would place greater emphasis on Christian history and biblical content in public school classrooms. Organizers said the demonstration symbolized what they described as the death of religious freedom in public schools.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Last month, Texas overhauled what the state\u2019s 5.5 million public school students<\/a> will be expected to learn about history and literature,\u00a0embedding Christianity and biblical readings<\/a> into the standards on a scale no other state has matched.<\/p>\n Now, the Texas Education Agency is capitalizing on those changes, spending millions to develop new textbooks and lesson plans that districts will be incentivized to use.<\/p>\n READ MORE: See the Bible verses and books Texas public school students will now be required to read<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The move could edge out private publishers and further cement the agency\u2019s role in dictating how and what public schools teach, industry observers and critics said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a time in the future where Bluebonnet will no longer be optional,\u201d said State Board of Education Member Evelyn Brooks, a Frisco Republican, referring to the state\u2019s materials. \u201cThat is where it’s heading, just whatever the state puts in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas is the only state in the country to own and publish its own line of textbooks and lesson plans. The program, called Bluebonnet, rolled out in 2024 and is currently optional for districts, though those that participate receive extra state funding<\/a>. Just under a third of the state\u2019s 1,200 districts<\/a> are using Bluebonnet, which so far covers elementary-level math and English.\u00a0<\/p>\n The TEA confirmed to Hearst Newspapers this week that a $67 million contract it signed last year with Florida-based company MGT Solutions includes the development of new Bluebonnet materials for reading and social studies aligned to the new standards, as well as other subjects.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n READ MORE:\u00a0Everything you need to know about the TEA’s Bible-forward lesson plans<\/a><\/p>\n Any textbook publisher is free to make their own materials that cater to Texas\u2019 new standards, which become mandatory in 2030. But experts say many will be reluctant to invest because the social studies overhaul is so drastic.<\/p>\n Unlike other curriculum rewrites, this process produced a top-to-bottom overhaul<\/a>, reordering history and inserting brand-new lessons on Western civilization, religious history and biblical concepts. Many of the new courses are unrecognizable from their current iterations, teachers have said. The State Board of Education also set a first-of-its-kind literary list, making Texas the only state to mandate nearly 200 specific readings for all of its students, including 14 passages of the Bible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Traditional textbook publishers would have to essentially start from scratch, instead of updating their current editions. And the final product may be hard to market outside of Texas because no other states have so far taken a similar approach to social studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those materials would also have to compete with a state-backed alternative.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n READ MORE: Are you smarter than a first-grader? See if you could pass Texas’ controversial new standards<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAs a national publisher, if you can only market the program in Texas, you have to ask yourself some hard questions about if there is going to be a return on investment in dollars I spend,\u201d said Eve Myers, a Houston-based education consultant and former publishing executive.<\/p>\n Bluebonnet<\/p>\n The Bluebonnet program, spearheaded by Education Commissioner Mike\u00a0Morath, is meant to bring standardized, \u201chigh-quality\u201d materials to schools, including more fleshed-out lesson plans and teacher scripts to ease the workload for classrooms. The state has spent at least $100 million to develop the curriculum so far. Leaders in other conservative states, including Florida and Alabama, have attempted, but so far failed, to replicate the Texas model<\/a>.<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 curriculum has been controversial, particularly among Democrats, for its inclusion of Christian themes as well as thousands of grammatical, copyright and other errors that the TEA had to pay $8.4 million to correct earlier this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But a handful of Republicans, including Brooks, also blasted the effort as \u201ctextbook socialism,\u201d saying it\u2019s a state-funded competitor crowding out private counterparts. The state publishes the material for free and provides a $60-per-student state incentive for districts to adopt and print it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a serious issue for publishers,\u201d said Fairview Republican Pam Little, a frequent critic of TEA who also previously worked in the publishing industry. \u201cWe’re limiting our free enterprise system.\u201d<\/p>\n Little and others have also criticized the agency for a lack of transparency in the development of its curriculum. The Bluebonnet contract was published in May, nearly a year after it was signed, which critics say gave the state\u2019s curriculum writers an unfair head start.<\/p>\n The agency has said it followed contracting notification rules and that all textbook publishers have had equal opportunity to draft and edit textbooks ahead of 2029, when any submitted materials will undergo an approval process by the State Board of Education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBased on what was approved at June’s SBOE meeting, the agency will be revising the curriculum documents to precisely align the newly approved standards,\u201d said TEA spokesman Jake Kobersky.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n District costs<\/p>\n The overhaul could be a huge financial endeavor for school districts across the state, which could make the free Bluebonnet materials more appealing.\u00a0<\/p>\n