State Board of Education keeps Heroic Alamo defenders, Moses and Judeo-Christian Heritage in History

Austin, Texas- The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) voted on final approval of streamlined Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Standards (TEKS) today for History and Social Studies.  Some SBOE Democrats attempted to rewrite History as they opposed these efforts to preserve teaching that already existed in Texas schools. Early this year, an unelected working group recommended removing many important elements and figures in History and Social Studies teaching for all Texas public schools K-12.  The majority of the SBOE rightly voted to preserve these key elements and inspiration for the American founding, and our Judeo-Christian heritage. Texas Values applauds these inclusions in the TEKS.

Jonathan Saenz, President of Texas Values said “In Texas, you don’t mess with our Alamo defenders and you don’t mess with respect for our Christian Heritage. We thank the State Board of Education for listening to their constituents and protecting the heroic defenders of the Alamo, Moses, and our Judeo-Christian Heritage.”

Some of the important items Texas Values testified in favor of and worked to save include:

• Elementary
  • 1^st Grade 2 (A) “Sam Houston” as a historical figure to identify
  • 3^rd Grade 7 (B) “Declaration of Independence” to identify the text students needed to learn
  • 3^rd Grade 12(B) “Todd Beamer” as a contemporary hero
  • 5^th Grade 3 (B) “Founding Fathers” to describe James Madison and George Mason
• Middle School
  • 7^th Grade 3 (C) “heroism” in reference to the defenders of the Alamo
  • 7^th Grade 3 (C ) “William Travis’ Letter to the People of Texas and All Americans in the World”
  • 8^th Grade 2 (B) “religious” as a reason for the establishment of the 13 colonies
  • 8^th Grade 3 (C) “describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies”
  • 8^th Grade 7 (D) “John Quincy Adams” as a person who had a role prior to the Civil War
  • 8^th Grade 25 (B) “describe religious influences on social movements, including the impact on the first and second Great Awakening”
  • 8^th Grade 26 (A) “Battle Hymn of the Republic” as an example of unique music in American culture
• High School: U.S. History
  • 6 (A) “Eugenics” as a significant social issue of the 1920s
  • 21 (A) “Alexis De Tocqueville” as the person who introduced the concept of American exceptionalism
• High School: World History
  • 12 (C) “including the German invasion of Poland and the Soviet Union, the Holocaust…the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Normandy landings, and the dropping of the atomic bombs” As major events in WWII
  • 19 (A) “Judeo Christian legal tradition” as a factor in the development of democratic-republican government
  • 21 (B) “from sources including the Judeo Christian legal tradition and in Greece and Rome” as the origins of ‘trial by jury,’ ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ and ‘equality under the law’
• High School: U.S. Government
  • 1 (B) “Judeo Christian (especially biblical law)” as one of the intellectual, philosophical, and religious tradition that formed the American founding.
  • 1 (C) “Moses” as one of the individuals whose principles of law and government informed the American founding
  • 11 (A) “compare the U.S. constitutional republic” as a form of government to compare to others
  • 12 (D) “examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America and guaranteed its free exercise by saying that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ and compare this to the phrase ‘separation of church and state.’” To understand the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

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Texas Values is the largest statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to standing for faith, family, and freedom in Texas. More information is available at txvalues.org.