Hi John,

Last week, the State Board of Education finished what it started in April, and it's just as bad as we feared.

The board approved a rushed, ideology-driven rewrite of high school social studies standards for U.S. History, U.S. Government, World History, and World Geography. These are the courses that shape how millions of Texas students understand their own country and the wider world. The board chose politics over accuracy, and our kids will pay the price.

Here’s your September 2026 SBOE Rundown.

The new standards teach students that "radical Islam," not extremist terrorist groups, motivated the September 11 attacks. Students will learn about Islam largely through the lens of violence against Christian and Jewish communities and the "normalization of slavery," while centuries of Muslim contributions to fields like algebra and astronomy are left out entirely.

Christianity, meanwhile, is singled out as the source of values — compassion, equality, respect for others — that are common to nearly every major religion. Students won't be taught the basic beliefs of the world's other faiths, a sharp break from current Texas standards and a real loss for the cultural literacy students need to understand the world they're growing up in.

Some of the board's own content advisors warned against these very characterizations.

The board passed them anyway.

This wasn't just about bad content — it was about a bad process. Drafts of the high school standards weren't released until 10 days before the meeting. TFN had to file a Public Information Request just to find out what the board had actually passed back in June. 

Not only was the process, rushed, but certain board members spent a striking amount of time arguing with the Texans who showed up to testify rather than engaging seriously with the substance of what should be taught in our classrooms.

The new standards won't take effect until 2030, which means we have time to keep fighting, and to make sure Texans understand exactly what their elected board members did here.

TFN will be reviewing the full K-12 social studies TEKS in detail and will release a complete report to Texas families as soon as possible. We'll also keep pushing for accountability from the board members who chose culture-war politics over quality education for 5.5 million Texas kids.

We'll be in touch when it's time to take action. Until then, we hope you'll help us spread the word about what's happening at the SBOE.

Always in the fight,

Seneca Savoie (he/him)

TFN Organizing Director

TFN is a statewide non-partisan, grassroots organization that is building an informed and effective movement working toward equality and social justice.

Texas Freedom Network
P.O. Box 1624
Austin, TX 78767
United States 
Phone: (512) 322-0545

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