The panel of nine advisers selected to offer feedback and recommendations to the Texas State Board of Education as it implements a new and controversial K–8 social studies curriculum is giving historians — as well as Democrats and Republicans — pause, reports the Texas Tribune.
The panel includes just one person currently working in a Texas public school district. At least three people are associated with conservative activism, including David Barton, known for his promotion of Christian nationalist views on American history and governance.
Barton, founder of the organization WallBuilders, has been influential in shaping public school curricula in Texas, advocating for content that aligns with his vision of America’s Christian heritage.
Critics say he has pushed to downplay or remove figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and César Chávez from state education materials.
Another panelist is Jordan Adams, an education consultant and former employee of Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan.
His work in other states has drawn backlash, along with his address to attendees at a 2023 Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia where he described his consulting work as “the fox in the henhouse.”
David Randall, executive director of the Civics Alliance and research director of the National Association of Scholars, was also appointed to the panel.
The Tribune says he has called the exclusion of the Bible and Christianity in social studies instruction “bizarre,” adding that no one “should find anything controversial” about teaching the role of “Judeo-Christian values” in colonial North America.
Rocío Fierro-Pérez, political director of the Texas Freedom Network, a progressive advocacy organization that monitors the State Board of Education’s decisions, told the Tribune the board’s decisions show that some members are more focused “on promoting political agendas rather than teaching the truth.”
“Whether your political beliefs are conservative, liberal, or middle of the road really shouldn’t disqualify you from participating in the process to overhaul these social studies standards,” Fierro-Pérez said.
Adams told the Tribune that every teacher in America “falls somewhere along the political spectrum, and all are expected to set their personal views aside when teaching. The same goes for myself and my fellow content advisors.
“Of course, given that this is public education, any efforts must support the U.S. Constitution and Texas Constitution, principles of the American founding, and the perpetuation of the American experiment in free self-government.”
Pam Little, the vice chair on the State Board of Education, said the makeup of the advisory panel was “disappointing.”
“I think it signals that we’re going in a direction where we teach students what we want them to know, rather than what really happened,” she added.
The newly adopted social studies standards adopted will place greater emphasis on Texas state history over a six-year period for students in grades three through eight.
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