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The Texas Board of Education narrowly voted Friday to allow Bible-based curriculum in elementary schools. Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than 5 million students in Texas public schools. Staci Childs, who is an attorney and a Democrat who voted against the Bible curriculum at Friday's hearing, said she believes it will be challenged in court. The new Texas curriculum follows Republican-led efforts in neighboring states to give religion more of a presence in public schools. The Texas Education Agency, which oversees public education for students statewide, created its instruction materials after a law passed in 2023 by the GOP-controlled Legislature required the agency to do so.

Persons: Greg Abbott, Staci Childs, Matthew Patrick Shaw, ”, Mary Castle Organizations: Texas, of Education, Texas State, Republicans, Republican Gov, Republican, Vanderbilt University, The Texas Education Agency, GOP Locations: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana

☆ Texas Bluebonnet curriculum: Officials to vote on state lessons that emphasize Christian Bible lessons
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-19 | by ( Zoe Sottile | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —Officials in Texas are set to vote Tuesday on a new public school curriculum that incorporates lessons from the Bible as early as kindergarten, that provoked criticism from advocacy groups and families across the state. The state Board of Education will vote on revisions to its K-5 reading and English language arts materials, part of Bluebonnet Learning, the Texas Education Agency-developed open education resources. We don’t leave Texans behind.”Ghani also argued that Texas public school teachers are already “overburdened” with the amount of material they’re expected to teach. “But inserting faith-based lessons into public school classrooms, which sounds like what is intended here, is not the study of history or literature. The legislature has also pushed to require that public school classrooms display the Ten Commandments.

Persons: Bill, Jesus, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, ”, Mark Chancey, “, Barbara Baruch, “ Don’t, Jonathan Covey, Glenn Melvin, Vitale, ” Melvin, ” David Brockman, –, ” Brockman, Shariq Ghani, don’t, ” Ghani, ’ Charles Haynes, Robert Pondiscio, Greg Abbott Organizations: CNN, Education, Texas Education Agency, Texas AFT, Southern Methodist University, Texas, US, Engel, Texas Freedom Network, “, Foundation, Texans, Freedom, Association of Religion Data, American Enterprise Institute, Republican Locations: Texas, Rome, Roman, “ Texas, The74, Oklahoma, Louisiana

☆ How the Houston teacher certification scheme worked
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-03 | by ( Ramon Sanchez | Ray Sanchez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —Robert “Boo Lee” Williams was still seething days after a popular basketball coach and two assistant principals at Houston’s first two historically Black high schools were arrested in an alleged teacher certification scheme. “In fact, when he was caught red-handed in February of 2024 he was logged into one test,” Levine said. A pattern of long drives helps unravel schemeHarris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, left, and felony chief prosecutor Mike Levine announce arrests in teacher certification scheme. They then drove sometimes four or more hours to the Houston area and suddenly they were passing the test,” Levine said. “This ain’t just a Black school in Houston.

Persons: Robert “ Boo Lee ” Williams, ”, Williams, Jack Yates, … I’m, Kim Ogg, “, Vincent Grayson, Booker T, Nicholas Newton, LaShonda Roberts, Yates, Ogg, ” Ogg, Tywana Gilford Mason, Gilford Mason, Grayson, Black, Cheryl Irvin, Irwin, It’s, Mike Levine, ” Levine, Levine, Newton, Feroz Merchant, Roberts ’, Brandon Leonard, we’ve, Roberts, Kirk Sides, Texas Education Agency “, Alexandra Elizondo, ” Elizondo, Houston Jon Shapley, Pearson VUE, ” Pearson, Allison Bazin, “ They’re, Jackie Anderson, KHOU, ” Williams, Roland Martin, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Vincent Grayson’s Organizations: CNN, Jack Yates Senior High School, Houston Independent School District, Washington High, Prosecutors, Wilhite, HISD, Booker, Washington, Tuskegee Institute, KHOU, Houston Chronicle, Texas Education Agency, Investigators, Washington High School, State, “, Houston Federation of Teachers, Yates, ” Locations: Ward, Texas, …, ” Harris County, Harris County, Harris, Houston, ”, Dallas

☆ Over 200 unqualified Texas educators had someone else take their exam in cheating scandal
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-30 | by ( Marlene Lenthang | Marlene Lenthang Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Five people have been charged in Texas, accused of organizing and participating in an illegal cheating scheme that certified more than 200 unqualified teachers and saw the plot’s “kingpin” rake in more than $1 million, prosecutors announced. Investigators noticed a pattern: Numerous teacher certification candidates who previously failed certification exams would drive from faraway Texas cities to the Houston area to take an exam. Then a tip came in that exposed the cheating scheme. He'd pay her about 20% of the $2,500 to allow the cheating, Levine said. “They are going to go over every teacher, I’m sure, and take whatever action they see fit if they believe someone fraudulently obtained a certification,” Levine said.

Persons: proctor, Kim Ogg, Vincent Grayson, Booker T, Tywana Gilford Mason, Nicholas Newton, Nikole, LaShonda Roberts, Ken Paxton, Mike Levine, Texas “, ”, Ogg, —, Levine, proctors, ” Levine, Grayson, Gilford Mason, He'd, Nicolas Newton, Newton, “, Roberts, HTEC, It's, Brandon G, Leonard, I’m, — Grayson, Alexandra Elizondo Organizations: Washington High School, Houston Independent School District, Texas Education Agency, Training, Education Center, DA, Public, Houston Training, Booker, Yates High School, NBC News, TEA, Houston ISD, HISD, Public Affairs, Communications Locations: Texas, Houston, Harris County, Newton, Houston ISD, TACTIX

☆ Swallowed eels escape via predator fish’s gills
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-13 | by ( Mindy Weisberger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Dark sleeper fish (Odontobutis obscura) can gulp down young Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) whole, but the swallowed eels can wriggle back up through the digestive tract and out of the stomach, swimming to freedom through the bigger fish’s gills, scientists recently discovered. “Witnessing the eels’ desperate escape from the predator’s stomach to the gills was truly astonishing for us.”A Japanese eel exhibits circling behavior along a predator's stomach wall in this X-ray video footage. But while they observed swallowed eels wriggling tailfirst from dark sleepers’ gills, “we had no understanding of their escape routes and behavioral patterns during the escape because it occurred inside the predator’s body,” Hasegawa said via email. Once a predator swallowed an eel, the sated fish was quickly moved to a special tank where the X-ray video camera was ready to roll. On average, it took about 3 ½ minutes for a swallowed eel to reappear and swim away.

Persons: ”, Yuha Hasegawa, Yuuki Kawabata, ichthyologist Kory Evans, “, ” Evans, ’ Hasegawa, Kazuki Yokouchi, Nagasaki University —, ” Hasegawa, Prosanta, Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, Graduate School of Fisheries, Environmental Sciences, Japan’s Nagasaki University, “, biosciences, Rice University, Japan Fisheries Research, Education Agency, Nagasaki University, Louisiana State University, LSU Museum of Natural Science, Scientific Locations: Anguilla, Houston

☆ Opinion: Public schools are not Sunday schools
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-03 | by ( Opinion Amanda Tyler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —It has been an especially active few weeks for news about religion in public schools. Public schools are not Sunday schools, and families should feel free to send their children to school without worrying about state officials interfering in their choices about religious instruction. These politically conservative state officials are seemingly making a show of testing the limits of government-sponsored religious instruction and exercise in public schools, emboldened by the US Supreme Court’s recent decisions. Like religious instruction in public schools, the public funding of religion undermines fundamental principles of religious freedom for all. By merging religious and political authority, taxpayer funding of religious schools threatens the rights of people of all faiths — and those of no faith.

Persons: Amanda Tyler, Jeff Landry, Ryan Walters, ” Amanda Tyler, Kennedy, Walters, beholden, ” Walters Organizations: Baptist, Religious Liberty, Christian Nationalism, CNN, Texas Education Agency, Louisiana Gov, US, Twitter, Oklahoma Supreme Court Locations: Louisiana, Oklahoma’s, Kennedy v, Bremerton, Kentucky, Texas , Louisiana, Oklahoma

☆ What happens when history is erased? An artist edits Civil Rights images to eerie effect
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

That’s the version of history Houston-based artist Phillip Pyle II poses in the photographic series “Forgotten Struggle,” in which he presents provocatively edited pictures of Civil Rights protestors during the 1960s carrying blank white signs. Phillip Pyle IIPyle initially began the work in response to textbook changes made by the Texas State Board of Education in 2010. Phillip Pyle IIBut Pyle’s images don’t just infer commentary on contested curriculum. “(I want) to talk about history in a way that’s not beating you over the head with history,” he added. But Pyle also thinks about how his images will live online, and how they might be viewed decades from now.

Persons: Eric Garner, “, ”, Phillip Pyle, provocatively, ” Pyle, Pyle, Steven Evans, ” Evans, it’s Organizations: CNN, Civil, Civil Rights, Texas State, of Education, FotoFest Locations: Houston, Florida, “, FotoFest, vitrines

Advocates for comprehensive sex education say the restrictions in early education may prevent kids from getting age-appropriate foundational knowledge that they build on each year, said Alison Macklin, director of policy and advocacy at the progressive sex education organization SIECUS. To comply with the new law in Kentucky, for example, the state’s education agency advised schools eliminate fifth-grade lessons on puberty and reproductive body parts. Twenty-eight states require sex education, and 35 require HIV education, according to tracking by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Massachusetts, for example, recently announced new sexual health education guidelines, which were last updated in 1999. She remembers just one optional day of sex education in middle school.

Persons: Anne, Marie Amies Oelschlager, Alison Macklin, “, Macklin, aren't, ”, David Walls, Kathleen Ethier, Ethier, don’t, ” Ethier, Hope Crenshaw, aren’t, ” Crenshaw, Kayla Smith, ” Smith, Holly Ramer, Rebecca Boone Organizations: DES, Republican, Seattle Children's Hospital, The, Foundation, Guttmacher Institute, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, U.S . Department of Health, Human Services, Public Health, HHS, New, PREP, CDC’s, Adolescent, School Health, CDC, Teen Health Mississippi, University of Mississippi, Associated Press Locations: DES MOINES, Iowa, Seattle, Indiana, Arkansas, In Kentucky, Florida, Kentucky, ”, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Alabama, Colorado , Florida , Idaho , Iowa, South Carolina, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, agency’s, Mississippi, U.S, Concord , New Hampshire, Boise , Idaho

☆ Publishers, booksellers sue Texas over public school book ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

July 26 (Reuters) - A coalition of booksellers, authors and publishers has sued Texas seeking to block a new state law that bans "sexually explicit" books from public schools. Vendors that do not participate will be barred from selling any books to Texas schools. Any books rated explicit cannot be sold to public schools and must be recalled from libraries. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has said the Texas law protects children, declaring that it "gets that trash out of our schools" when he signed it in June. In May, the writers' group PEN America and others sued a Florida school district for banning books dealing with LGBTQ and race issues.

Persons: Greg Abbott, Joseph Ax, Colleen Jenkins, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Republican, Texas Education Agency, PEN America, American Library Association, Thomson Locations: Texas, Austin, Florida, Arkansas

☆ A new Texas law forces vendors to rate sexual content in schoolbooks. They’re not happy about it
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Nadia Bidarian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But a new Texas law might require her to. The law’s primary author, Republican Texas State Rep. Jared Patterson, said its aim is simple: Get sexually explicit content out of schools. Republican Texas State Rep. Jared Patterson debates HB 900, which would ban sexually explicit materials from library books in schools. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman/APBut the burden of rating these books falls on book vendors. The law also applies retroactively to books sold to schools in the past, meaning that vendors must issue recalls for “sexually explicit” books still in circulation.

Persons: Charley Rejsek, they’d, “ We’re, ” Rejsek, Jared Patterson, Mikala Compton, “ We’ve, “, ” Patterson, ”, Shirley Robinson, ” Robinson, Ben Conn, Conn, Noble, ” Conn, wasn’t, Patterson, Valerie Koehler, Mary Cate Stevenson, Noah Nofz Koehler, doesn’t, she’s, ” Koehler, Noah Nofz Richard Bailey, Greg Abbott, Bailey, ” Bailey, Lewis Parry, ” Elizabeth Jordan, ’ Patterson, ” Jordan, can’t, Jordan Organizations: CNN, Republican Texas State, Austin American, Statesman, Resources, ”, Texas Library Association, Media Association, Barnes, Penguin, Library Company, Education, Willow, Interabang, Dallas County, Lewis Parry Interabang, Nowhere, Texas Education Agency Locations: Texas, Austin, ”, Houston, Houston , Texas, Dallas, Dallas , Texas, San Antonio

☆ The world's biggest publisher is suing a Florida school district for banning books by writers including Toni Morrison and Khaled Hosseini
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Penguin Random House is suing a Florida school district and board after it banned certain books. Penguin Random House has joined forces with an authors' group to sue a Florida school district after it banned a number of books. Books removed or restricted by Escambia include "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, and "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. All have had books removed from libraries or had student access restricted by the district, PEN America said in a press release. "The book removals and restrictions enacted by the School District and School Board are denying students access to books they would like to read, or chilling such access."

☆ The College Board claps back at DeSantis, calling Florida's reasoning for banning AP African American studies 'slander'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Taiyler Simone Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The College Board clapped back on Saturday, defending the course. Instead, the College Board said the administration has leaned into spreading misinformation: "We need to clear the air and set the record straight." The College Board maintained that the course framework was just an outline for the pilot course. The organization also slammed the administration for taking credit for changes that the College Board made to the course and said that there have not been any negotiations between the College Board and the FDOE. "The College Board condemns this uninformed caricature of African American Studies and the harm it does to scholars and students," the statement continues.

☆ Meet Matt Krause, the man who critics say helped make Texas a national leader in book bans
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Texas now has the highest number of book bans in the US. Texas is now a leader in book bans, and one influential politician — along with pressure from the GOP — may have been the driving force, a Houston Chronicle investigation found. By April 2022, a PEN America analysis found that Texas had 713 bans, nearly half of all book bans in the US. Some politicians and parent groups disagreed with the inquiryKrause denies any political motivations behind the book list, but critics disagree. For Foote, the book bans represent GOP political motivations, citing school board officials and lawmakers who have begun their own book challenges.

☆ I'm a working mom who's had no choice but to homeschool my kid. The government should offer more aid for families like mine.
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-02 | by ( Melissa Petro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She's homeschooling her son as their district can't find a public school to meet his special needs. As a child with a disability, he's entitled to services that will support and help him succeed in school. The good news: I found a private school for kids with special needs and they have an immediate opening. Do I put it on a credit card, hire a lawyer, and sue my public school district for reimbursement? I don't have a full-time "job," but I'm literally doing the job of a hundred different people.

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