SBOE Preview: Social Studies may soon be history

The State Board of Education (SBOE) will meet next week in Austin beginning Aug. 31 and once again the hottest item on the agenda during the hottest month of the year will be the social studies standards. The board did not complete their revisions to some of the high school courses in June and so the following will be revisited this week: United States History Studies, United States Government, World History Studies, World Geography Studies, and Applied Personal Financial Literacy. 

Social Studies 

We wrote last week about the departure of Member Childs from the SBOE due to her all but certain election to the Texas House in November, which allows another Democrat, Dr. Coretta Mallet-Fontenot, to be placed on the ballot and presumably take her seat in Jan. 2027. Gov. Abbott has appointed Tammie Neilsen to sit the remainder of the year in the District 4 seat. Childs has been a strong champion for amendments that strengthen black history and the contributions of other marginalized groups. Though her move was politically necessary, it does mean the balance of power on the board shifts decidedly to the right during these final content deliberations. 

Once again, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has been exceptionally slow in publishing known information to the public. The official public comment period was conducted and concluded before the June meeting. However, the board made substantial revisions to the courses above during the June meeting. They had the opportunity to be more transparent with the public and post these drafts to the TEKS revision webpage; they did not, and we are aware of direct requests for this information that went unanswered. We presume that the version of the standards published in the agenda last week is the work product of the previous meeting, but there is no way to independently verify that.  

Clearly, the content advisors have had access to these documents because once again their individual and majority response documents have been posted to the TEKS revision webpage, though this also occurred less than a week before the board meeting leaving the public little time to analyze the documents and develop a response. It bears repeating that all but one of this “expert” panel lack K-12 instructional experience, and yet we have repeatedly seen their recommendations amended whole cloth into the proposed standards, often usurping the work of teachers and other stakeholders. Some advocates have been actively, if hurriedly, reviewing the documents to provide information in advance of the meeting. 

We expect that there will be significant amendments to these courses next week prior to likely adoption on Friday.  

These TEKS have occupied the attention of the board and the public for the better part of a year. Texas AFT, along with allied organizations, has continuously pushed back on the rushed and faulty process, the lack of communication and transparency from the agency, and many specific content objections. Yet some essential questions remain: 

• What exactly is changing from the current TEKS? 

• Are these new experimental standards rigorous and developmentally appropriate? 

• Can they reasonably be taught and learned to mastery in a typical school year? 

• What are the impacts to state assessments and how will this help Texas students measure up to their national peers? 

• These standards have removed critical events and people from the curriculum. If these standards are meant to “tell a story,” whose story is being told? 

The fact that the public and teaching field may not get complete answers to these questions until after the standards are adopted is hugely problematic. 

Should the board adopt these courses next, it will set implementation for a future school year to allow for the development and adoption of instructional materials, including the mandatory Bluebonnet open education resource. Then, every social studies teacher in the state of Texas will have to be trained to cater to this new version of history. 

Instructional Materials  

Monday will begin with the public hearing on the 2026 instructional materials review and adoption (IMRA) cycle. This is notable because this is the first time the board will consider subject areas other than reading and math, such as career and technical education (CTE) and fine arts. Staff will also deliver a general update on the 2026 cycle and the body will consider the quality rubric for the adoption of languages other than English (LOTE) for the 2027 cycle. 

Fiscal Considerations 

The board will make a determination as to if and how much of the Permanent School Fund (PSF) may be distributed to the Available School Fund (ASF) in 2027. This is an annual item, and amounts go towards the total state expenditure for public education and instruction materials. They will also get an update on the forecast for this distribution in 2028 and 2029. 

Texas Education Agency (TEA) staff will provide an overview of the agency’s budget by major component for fiscal years and the biennium totals for 2026-2027, as well as the agency’s Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) for the 2026-2027 biennium. This is where TEA may ask for items and dollars that currently fall outside the scope of its budget and can be a forecast for what projects the TEA will be focusing on in the near future. This should be a preview before the TEA presents to the Legislative Budget Board later in the month.