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(The Center Square) – The State Board of Education (SBOE) on Friday approved the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) proposal for Texas’ state-owned textbooks, known as Bluebonnet Learning. It passed by a vote of 8-7. It includes new Mathematics curriculum for K-8 students, new Language Arts material for K-5 students and additional instructional support for teachers. Gov. Greg Abbott lauded the vote, saying, “The passage of Bluebonnet Learning is a critical step forward to bring students back to the basics of education and provide the best education in the nation.” He also notes that the materials are voluntary and free for use. Parents and the public are able to access the materials at tea.texas.gov/bluebonnet . The “transformative educational materials ... will ensure young Texans have access to high-quality, grade-level appropriate curricula that will provide the necessary fundamentals in math, reading, science, and other core subjects and boost student outcomes across Texas,” Abbott said. The new curriculum stems from HB 1605, filed in 2023 by state Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, which passed the legislature and Abbott signed into law. It requires the TEA to provide Open Education Resources (OER) textbooks for core subjects, including reading and math for Pre-K to 8th grade. It also directed the TEA to appoint an advisory board to ensure the materials are high quality and compliant with state standards. The materials were subject to approval by the SBOE. The curriculum is voluntary, but school districts will receive additional funding if they use them. If they opt-in to use Bluebonnet Learning, a second stream of additional funding will be made available to defray printing costs. Abbott said in May when the materials were made available for public review that they will “provide the necessary fundamentals in math, reading, science, and other core subjects” and “allow our students to better understand the connection of history, art, community, literature, and religion on pivotal events like the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Movement, and the American Revolution,” The Center Square reported . Of the several issues opponents criticized, chief among them is proposed curriculum in the Language Arts material related to Christianity and the Bible. The American Federation of Teachers-Texas Chapter also took issue with additional state funding only being made available to school districts that opt-in, arguing the process is unethical and violates educational standards. “Every educator in this state agrees to a Code of Ethics . Among the standards we are expected to uphold by the state of Texas is that we shall not exclude a student from participation in a program, deny benefits to a student, or grant an advantage to a student on the basis of race, color, gender, disability, national origin, religion, family status, or sexual orientation,” AFT-Texas Chapter President Zeph Capo said . “Texas has a way of forcing us to violate this standard, usually about the time that the Legislature ends its session and the governor puts his pen to the signature line of so many counterproductive, detrimental bills. Today, though, it is the State Board of Education that has put us in the position of defying our Code of Ethics once more. “On Nov. 22, in a close vote that crossed party lines and was separated only by a last-minute political appointee, the SBOE voted to approve Bluebonnet Learning materials as curriculum resources for Texas public school districts.” Capo also said the materials “are not just inappropriate – they’re bad at what they proclaim to do. Instructional experts have expressed deep concerns about the age-appropriateness of the materials and whether they will be effective reading instruction.” The vote was held after significant public input. On Monday, more than 150 people signed up to testify before the board about the curriculum. On Tuesday, board members took a preliminary vote, 8-7, indicating it had enough votes to adopt the curriculum. This is after thousands weighed in after the material was made public in May. “A highly transparent, three-month public feedback period began in May 2024, giving the public an opportunity to review and offer comments on the proposed materials. The SBOE also welcomed several hours of public testimony at its September meeting where additional feedback on the product was received. TEA used these comments and feedback to further refine, edit and ready the product for final submission as part of the SBOE’s Instructional Materials Review and Approval (IMRA) process - ensuring the materials are aligned with state standards and values,” the TEA explains. “The branding of Bluebonnet Learning began with feedback from teachers and parents seeking a clear, distinctive name to make the materials easier to recognize for educators and school systems. Bluebonnet Learning materials are Texas Open Education Resources (OER), meaning they are owned by the state, made available free to anyone, and can be modified over time to make them better for students and teachers.”Democratic Party strategist James Carville lamented the political misfortune of President Biden in the weeks following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory . In a video update published on YouTube, the 80-year-old pundit weighed in on the heat Biden is currently enduring from his own party for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden . Though Carville did not hold the pardon against the president, he lamented how Biden’s actions in the past year have made him such an unpopular figure. “The most tragic figure in American politics in my lifetime is President Biden,” Carville proclaimed. The strategist waved off criticism from Biden’s own party that he pardoned his son on Sunday after saying throughout his presidency he never would. “Alright, so he said, ‘I’d never pardon the kid.’ Okay. I don’t believe any – When anybody says, ‘I never had sex with that person,’ or, ‘I’d never pardon my kid,’ I don’t pay any attention to it, ‘cause I think everybody lies about sex and everybody is going to do what they’re going to do with their own children,” he said. Multiple Democratic lawmakers and liberal media outlets condemned the pardon, arguing the younger Biden got off too easy from multiple felony convictions and warning that Trump would use it as an excuse for more abuses of power. Instead, Carville hammered Biden over running for re-election in the first place, saying that if he had just passed the torch early enough, the Democratic Party would have won the election and none of this negative attention would be on him. He would have left the White House on a “high note,” he said. Under intense pressure, Biden bowed out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris , who went on to lose to Trump. “But the different scenario would be, if he would have – in September of 2023 or August – said that he wasn’t going to run ... we would have won this election. And it wouldn’t have been that close, because we’d have had so many freaking talented people that were running,” he lamented. Carville continued describing Biden’s glorious alternative future, stating, “And he would be sitting here right now, getting ready to leave on a high note. There would be naming commissions to figure out what we’re going to name after him. He would be the toast of Washington. It would be a Democratic inauguration coming up, and a new Democratic president could have sort of gotten away with commuting any sentence that Hunter Biden got.” He added that there would have been “minimal” pushback if the pardon happened in this scenario because Biden would be seen in a better light. “And all of this,” he continued, “is f—ing self-inflicted. It’s tragic, it’s sad, and of course, everything about him is – it will be six years before somebody comes back and talks about all of the stunning things – the manufacturing that he’s brought back, the stunning stuff he’s done.” “What’s so sad, it didn’t have to be this way. He brought it all on himself,” he said.
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