A Bible-infused curriculum that Texas approved for public schools over pushback in 2024 will undergo corrections to fix hundreds of errors caught by teachers and education officials after the material was introduced to classrooms.
The curriculum in what is known as the “Bluebonnet” textbook is among Republican-led efforts in the U.S. to incorporate more religious teaching into classrooms. Designed by the state’s public education agency, it is optional for schools to adopt, though they receive additional funding if they do so.
Bluebonnet was approved over concerns from religious scholars that the reading lessons favored Christianity over other faith traditions and pushback from advocacy groups that the materials inappropriately prioritized preaching over teaching.
The State Board of Education voted 8-6 Wednesday to approve the changes — which include correcting factual errors, fixing punctuation and replacing images due to licensing or copyright issues — after some members questioned the high number of errors.
“My concern is that we have failed students this school year who have been utilizing this product,” said board member Tiffany Clark, a Democrat.
Aaron Kinsey, the Republican board chair, asked Clark if she was implying that correcting something seemingly trivial like copyright issues could potentially mean that “we failed our students and they are not going to pass” the state’s annual standardized test administered to public school students.
Clark retorted that something as simple as a typo — especially in math equations — can have consequences. “If we have been teaching incorrectly this is going to have an impact,” she said.
“I understand that some of these errors are minimal, some of them are for clarity and some of them are for accuracy. But still, an error is an error,” said Pam Little, a Republican board member.
Colin Dempsey, a Texas Education Agency official who helps organize the instructional material review process, acknowledged the “high number of updates” needed but insisted factual errors were “minimal” — although he did not provide an exact figure.
Board members said more than 4,000 corrections were needed. But Jake Kobersky, spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency, told The Associated Press that approximately 1,900 changes were made and that the figure includes duplicate corrections in the teacher guide, student workbook and other documents.
Kobersky said most changes were “proactive in response to teacher feedback or grammatical fixes, not a result of factual errors.”
It is unclear how many districts adopted the curriculum for the current school year, the first it became available. As of August, more than 300 school districts and charter schools indicated they would use it. That number represents about a quarter of Texas’ 1,207 districts and charters.
After Wednesday’s approval of changes, the education agency said online curriculum materials would be updated within 30 days. It did not say how long it would take to print and replace physical learning materials or how much it would cost.
Little, who voted for the proposed changes, said she worries the board has “set a precedent for sloppy publishing.”
Dempsey said that the agency has increased the number of reviewers from five to eight who will be assessing the material going forward.
“I’m hopeful that will improve our process, where these are caught in the summer and not later on,” he said.
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Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
