Texas Jewish Federations Review of TEA Bluebonet Revised Curriculum English Language Arts Materials

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) released a proposed curriculum for grades K-5 that was infused with Christian-based teaching. After careful review, Texas Jewish Federations identified many sections in the curriculum that were disturbing, inappropriate, and even antisemitic, and submitted 31 change requests. The TEA responded to these and hundreds of other change requests and released a revised curriculum. We appreciate that many changes were made, however, the curriculum remains an almost solely Christian-based teaching, still contains inaccuracies, and is not age-appropriate in the religious concepts it introduces.

We are not against teaching a broad range of religious beliefs to children. Such teaching should be age-appropriate and presented in a way that clearly distinguishes between "beliefs" and "facts," and gives appropriate time and respect to acknowledging many different religions.

How You Can Help

The State Board of Education (SBOE) will vote on this curriculum at its next meeting, November 18-22.

Send an email to the entire State Board of Education with your personal story and reasons why you ask them to vote no on the Bluebonnet Curriculum. Please send emails by November 16, 2024. Copy and paste all email addresses below in the 'To' field:

Melissa.Ortega@tea.texas.gov; LJ.Francis@tea.texas.gov; marisa.perez@sboe.texas.gov; Staci.Childs@sboe.texas.gov; rebecca.bellmetereau@tea.texas.gov; will.hickman@tea.texas.gov; Julie.Pickren@tea.texas.gov; audrey.young@tea.texas.gov; ellisSBOE@gmail.com; tom@maynardfortexas.com; pat.hardy.1109@gmail.com; pam.little@tea.texas.gov; Aicha.Davis@tea.texas.gov; ebrooks@evelyn4texaseducation.com; aaron.kinsey@tea.texas.gov; commissioner@tea.texas.gov

Here are some talking points. We do need you to personalize the letter to catch their attention.

The curriculum is imbalanced in content teaching children about Christianity, without introducing other religious beliefs in an equal fashion.
The curriculum, by introducing sophisticated religious topics of resurrection, messiah, and redemption, at a very young age while children are just beginning to understand their own family's religious belief systems, is not age-appropriate, and violates parents’ rights to choose their children’s religious upbringing.
This curriculum, by emphasizing Christianity, is going against the Texas and U.S. Constitutions. Article 1 of the Texas Bill of Rights, Section 6 states: “All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences… and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship.”
Texas House Bill 1605 requires that this curriculum be “free from bias and factual errors, and of the highest quality.” This curriculum does not meet those standards, has not been thoroughly vetted and tested by curriculum experts and has a blatant agenda of teaching Christianity. We recommended the SBOE vote against offering this Bluebonnet curriculum.