Texas State Education Board Takes Bipartisan, Unanimous Vote to Stop Science Textbooks from Making a Monkey Out of You and Your Kids

Last week, the elected Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) took an important vote to recommend textbooks that will be used in Science classes for grades K-12 in all Texas public schools. This vote was extremely important because it renewed a decades long debate over how the universe began and where humans come from. Many textbooks eligible for approval presented as fact that the universe began with the “Big Bang”, that Evolution is the explanation for life, and one book in particular had an entire chapter on primate evolution representing that humans evolved from monkeys.

 If you have been following our work for a while, then you may have become familiar with the cycle of education standards and textbook approval process that the SBOE completes every few years. After approving a set of standards for a school subject, the Texas Education Commissioner issues a “proclamation” for textbooks to be approved for recommendation by the SBOE. Publishers from across the United States submit a bid to be chosen by the SBOE. After receiving feedback from the public and SBOE, publishers have an opportunity to edit their books accordingly. The SBOE finalizes the process with a vote of “yes” or “no” as to whether that publisher’s product will be on the recommended list of instructional materials that school districts can choose for students. This process can have an influential impact as we saw with the selection of Health textbooks in 2021. It is believed that obtaining approval in Texas is a large step for a publisher’s marketability to sell many textbooks in other states across the nation.

That said, any instructional materials that are recommended by SBOE should align with Texas standards and Texas values. Your Texas Values team was active in reviewing materials from 26 publishers who had several books from grade K-12 to review. Texas Values has traditionally taken the stance that if Evolution is taught in Science classes, then it should be taught as a theory and Creationism should be taught as well. Considering the political climate of schools today, we also had to monitor any LGBT themes in the Science textbooks.

After reviewing materials, Texas Values submitted written public comment on October 30, with concerns regarding the instructional materials. But more work needed to be done which is why Texas Values saw it necessary to testify at the November 14, SBOE meeting and hand-deliver our concerns to the 15-member SBOE. You can read our concerns here.

To summarize, a number of Science textbooks presented the “Big Bang Theory” as fact and the ultimate explanation of how the universe began. Many scientists disagree and say there is little evidence that the “Big Bang Theory” is responsible for the earth’s formation. Most importantly, not allowing room for students to think critically about how the universe began stifles the religious freedom of students and the idea that God is the Creator of the universe. Other textbooks presented Evolution theories such as “microorganisms arriv[ing] on Earth from space” and “lightning strikes” among other hypothesis as explanations of how life began. One textbook decided to teach kids in 8^th grade that a scientist is a member of the “LGBT” community. Creationism was only mentioned in one publisher called “TPS”, which Texas Values asked the SBOE to either vote to accept or use its language as a guide on editing all of the other books that do not mention Creationism at all and present Evolution as fact. Due to some other academic concerns, TPS was not fit to be selected for the recommendation list.

However, the most egregious textbook was a Biology book by the well-known publisher McGraw Hill. This book contained an entire chapter on primate evolution with several assertions that humans evolved from monkeys. The chapter discussed how humans are members of the “great ape family” and asked students when humans appeared in primate lineage. The chapter talks about how humans “split off” from African apes and tries to explain why humans walk up straight.  The book also contained images comparing a human skeleton to a chimpanzee skeleton, men who look like monkeys, and a chart linking several different types of monkeys to the ancestry of a little girl. Below are some of the images:

The McGraw Hill Biology book was so outrageous that Texas Values asked the SBOE to reject the entire book. SBOE member Pat Hardy made a motion for a preliminary vote to remove the McGraw Hill Biology book from the approval list. Hardy’s motion was approved along with several other votes to remove other books that also presented Evolution theories as fact.

But the publishers began to panic so many of the publishers reversed their course of action. Publishers still had time before the Friday meeting to edit their books if they wanted to seek approval. Earlier in the process the LGBT reference was edited out of an 8^th grade Science textbook. However, McGraw Hill is expected to make major edits to their book including:

• Deleting statement that humans come from African apes
• Deleting pictures of monkey-looking men
• Deleting picture of female and baby that look like monkeys and humans
• Add information that the fossil record is incomplete and cannot conclude that it represents that humans come from monkeys
• Edited picture of skeletons so that it does not suggest that humans evolved from monkeys or that humans and chimpanzees are similar
• Deleted other theories that suggest humans evolved from monkeys

However, there was an image that remained.

We asked Texas Values supporters to contact the SBOE to make sure all images and text inferring that humans evolved from monkeys were removed from the McGraw Hill Biology book or else he SBOE should vote “no”. On Friday, SBOE member Aaron Kinsey made a motion that the image above showing several monkeys linking their lineage to a little girl be removed from the Biology textbook. The SBOE voted 13-0 to have the image removed! This was a vote from Republican and Democrat members!

Finally, the SBOE took a vote on their ultimate list of approval for textbooks to be recommended to school districts. The list excluded some books that had issues. The final list contained the book that was edited to remove the LGBT reference and the new and improved McGraw Hill Biology book that retracted its erroneous claims of primate lineage.

Texas Values is pleased with the results at the November SBOE meeting and will continue to fight for religious freedom and truth in the classroom!