Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
As the Texas Legislature's special session wound down Thursday, lawmakers sent Gov. Greg Abbott a reworked version of the GOPs so-called critical race theory bill, which aims to restrict how race and history are taught in schools.
After a 81-43 vote Thursday afternoon in the Texas House, the bill went to the Senate, where lawmakers quickly accepted the Houses changes. The bill heads to Abbott with significant changes from what the Senate originally approved in early August.
Abbott had already signed into law a critical race theory bill during the regular session but declared at the time that more needs to be done to abolish critical race theory in Texas classrooms. The current law, House Bill 3979, already restricts how current events and Americas history of racism can be taught in Texas schools but also includes provisions authored by Democrats that required teaching that white supremacy is morally wrong and required readings from prominent people of color in American history.
If Abbott signs Senate Bill 3, it would replace that law. The new legislation would require at least one teacher and one campus administrator at each school to undergo a civics training program. Teachers could not be forced to discuss current controversial topics in the classroom, but if they do, they must not show any political bias.
The advent of slavery in America could not be taught as representing the true founding of the United States, but rather a deviation from American principles, according to the bill. Students also couldnt be required to learn about the New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project, which aims to put the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
The bill would prohibit students from receiving credit for interning at political campaigns or interning for companies or organizations where they will be lobbying or a part of the lobbying shop.
Any school district that uses an online portal to assign learning material would be required to give parents access.
Neither the original bill or the new one, SB 3, mention critical race theory or how it is taught in schools, however.
Critical race theory is an academic discipline that holds that racism is inherent in societal systems that broadly perpetuate racial inequity. In 2021, Republicans in the Texas Legislature seized on a national movement to ban the teaching of the theory. When a prior version of the bill passed the Senate earlier this summer, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick declared that critical race theory teaches that one race is better than another and that someone, by virtue of their race or sex, is innately racist, oppressive or sexist. But academic experts say GOP leaders have misrepresented the tenets of the framework, which many teachers say is not being taught in Texas schools anyway.
State Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, added amendments to the bill that protect teachers from any lawsuits, but school districts have the authority to ensure compliance. While SB 3 leaves out the reading requirements found in current law including works authored by people of color Huberty's amendment ensures that the State Board of Education does not exclude those readings based on the bill, especially as the state agency begins to revise the social studies curriculum.
Lawmakers also removed a requirement that would teach bout the history of white supremacy including institutions such as slavery, the eugenics movement and the Ku Klux Klan as morally wrong, which is a requirement in current law. But the bill does not prohibit this from being taught in schools or stops the SBOE from including it in future curriculum.
Huberty claimed Thursday that the amendments added made the bill better and defended state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, the chair of the House Public Education Committee, for getting the bill to the House floor.
But still, for Democrats, the bill is unnecessary.
Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, said the measure is an effort to continue micromanaging teachers and a solution to a problem that doesnt exist. Instead, legislators should have been focusing on issues that teachers say they have, she said.
Please, go ask your social studies teacher, What can we do to support you in your job? she told her colleagues during a two-hour debate. My guess is they ask for a reduction in the required testing and paperwork, an increase in their pay and more latitude in what they teach and say in the classroom.
Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, said SB 3 is a blatant attempt to censor valuable education in our classrooms and whitewash our history.
Erasing an uncomfortable reality of our past does not benefit our students with the knowledge they need to understand the present to work towards a better future, he said.
Jonathan Feinstein, the Education Trust Texas state director, said in a statement that while the amendments added Thursday are a good faith effort to mitigate the harm of the legislation, there is still work to do when it comes to protecting students right to learn and educators freedom to teach an accurate and truthful history, including the countrys history of racism.
Texans must be more engaged than ever in their local schools to ensure this legislation is not misinterpreted, misused or abused to threaten or punish teachers and students for confronting the hard parts of our shared history and seeking to create a better future, Feinstein said in a statement.
Disclosure: Education Trust and New York Times have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Join us Sept. 20-25 at the 2021 Texas Tribune Festival. Tickets are on sale now for this multi-day celebration of big, bold ideas about politics, public policy and the days news, curated by The Texas Tribunes award-winning journalists. Learn more.
More here:
- Anton Chaitkin: the British Monarchy & Euthanasia - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Rate the The Mental Hygiene Society - Yale University connection - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Len Horowitz files pandemic charges against Rockefeller - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Judge Napolitano on Forced Vaccinations in Massachusetts - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Joseph Moshe (MOSSAD Microbiologist): “Swine flu vaccine is bioweapon” - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Canadian study that suggests seasonal flu shots raise a person's risk of catching swine flu - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Doctor Admits Vaccine Is More Deadly Than Swine Flu Itself & Will Not Give It To His Kids - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ineffectiveness And Dangers Of Flu Shots - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Maafa 21 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Doctors Concerned FluMist Vaccine Could Spread Live H1N1 Virus - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Martial Law Soon - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Humanity's Greatest Challenge - Fear or Love - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Does the Vaccine Matter? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ten questions about flu vaccines that doctors and health authorities refuse to answer - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Swear NO Oaths (UNDERSTANDING JURISDICTION) - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- WARNING! Goodbye U.S Sovereignty... Hello One World Government ! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Glenn Beck interviews Lord Monckton on the Soviet style takeover of America by the NWO & BHO - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- TAVISTOCK - THE BEST KEPT SECRET IN AMERICA - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Become a Free Man { SUI JURIS } - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Income Tax Trial of the Century - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Gary Null Speaking Out Against vaccines at the NYS Assembly Hearing | 10-13-2009 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- WHO memos 1972 explains how to turn vaccines into a means of killing - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Swine Flu (aka 'H1N1) That's Not A Flu At All - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Lord Christopher Monchton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, answers critics of his claim that Obama intends to cede U.S. sovereignty - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Swine Flu Government Data Scam Government using fraud to generate flu hysteria - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Strecker Memorandum video - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- United States Patent 4,647,773 Gallo -Continuous production of retroviruses - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1970 : The funding of the Bio-terrorism AIDS virus - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Merchants of AIDS - full article - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Another Tool of Eugenics: Fluoride - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 1988: Dr. Jonathan Mann : Killed in Plane Crash - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Boyd Graves: Interview with Alex Jones - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Boyd Graves: Letter to Ninth Circuit Court - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Gallo and Litton Bionetics: Creators of Aids - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- This site is being developed - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- 2002: Eleven microbiologists mysteriously dead over the span of just five months - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Kissinger, Eugenics and Nazis - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- July 27, 1990: Aids is man-made - By William Cooper [Killed by Law enforcement in 2001] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Merchants of aids - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Why we should not trust the health market. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dr. David James preview - conscious media network - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- AIDS HIV BAYER CORPORATION HEMOPHELIA TAINTED BLOOD SUPPLY - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ugandians not dying fast enough. International Eugenists (Aids experts) want them to engage in casual sex - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Proof that AIDS was engineered to kill primarily blacks - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- In lies we Trust. The history of American Bioterrorism - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dallas: A possible Aids Cure? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Glutathione Accelerator - Any Good? - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Dr. Boyd Ed Graves International AIDS activist dies age 57 - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Genocide in Progress with novel flu virus. - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Genocide in Progress with new flu virus- CDC is suspect - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Vaccines: The Bargain Basement Technology of the 20th Century - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Anthrax - as American as Apple Pie. Eustace Mullins - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Swine flu: Some pregnant women shunning H1N1 vaccine - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- CFR lies to get You to take the Shot - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- US spraying Ukraine?? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Eustace Mullins: Murder By Injection - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Microbiologist nabbed by FBI after warning us that vaccine is a bioweapon deployment - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Airplanes sprayed mysterious substance over Ukraine days before pneumonic plague outbreak - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- NIH Whistleblower Alexander S. Jones: Deadly Flu Spreads Across Ukraine - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- RBD Change D225G in Ukraine Lungs Raises Concerns - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Young Boy in Agony After AH1N1 Nasal Flu Mist - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Unconfirmed Reports of Large Numbers of Deaths from the Vaccine in the Ukraine - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Vaccinations are Causing Impaired Blood Flow (Ischemia), Chronic Illness, Disease and Death for us All - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- British scientists suspect that swine flu virus has mutated in Ukraine. - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Vaccination: Federal Health Agencies Continue to Deceive Americans - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Ukraine plagues and now heavy supply and personnel movement in and out of US Deep Underground Military Bases (DUMBs) - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- College Students Getting Smarter, Shunning H1N1 Vaccine - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Deeper down the rabbit hole - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Ukraine Pneumonic Plague Research Nov 2009 - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Keiser on 'Tsunami alert': Dubai debt crisis awakes storm? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Christopher Story - EU Corruption - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- John Harris - Undermining Democracy - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- The first case of HIV/AIDS cure and no mention in the media. Why? - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- What is AIDS? - January 7th, 2010 [January 7th, 2010]
- Europe to Investigate the UN Over “Pandemic” Scam - February 13th, 2010 [February 13th, 2010]
- Nuke @ Olympics ????? - February 13th, 2010 [February 13th, 2010]
- Intelligent Anti-Fluoride Statement - Dr. J. William Hirzy - February 24th, 2010 [February 24th, 2010]
- Testimony [4-9] Fluoride's Definitive Medical Indictment - February 24th, 2010 [February 24th, 2010]
- History Lesson - March 10th, 2010 [March 10th, 2010]
- As the Bank System fails so will society - March 13th, 2010 [March 13th, 2010]