Texas board recoils from middle school textbooks with lessons on gender identity, abortion
Most parents are happy about this, but many say it does not go far enough. These radical people will give up Middle School to simply brainwash and indoctrinate our youth in High School. Think about it, they are promoting a future of pain for the High School student, promotion of unhealthy and unnatural behaviors?
Ludi Ortega teaches an eighth grade Worth the Wait sex education class at Zamora Middle School, Friday, April 4, 2008. The abstinence curriculum has been criticized by opponents as dissuading kids from having sex by focusing on contraceptive failure rates. Ludi Ortega teaches an eighth grade Worth the Wait sex education class at Zamora Middle School, Friday, April 4, 2008. The abstinence curriculum has been criticized by opponents as dissuading kids from having sex by focusing on contraceptive failure rates. Nicole Fruge/San Antonio Express News.
The Texas State Board of Education has signaled that it won’t endorse middle school health textbooks unless changes are made in how they address such topics as masturbation, abortion, gender identity and sexual orientation.
The Republican-led board’s debate over sex education comes as state GOP leaders put increasing pressure on public schools over books and images in libraries and classrooms that they deem inappropriate or pornographic.“
If I were to support, I wouldn’t get seated at a restaurant or get my cleaning picked up,” said Jay Johnson, a Republican from rural Gray County in the Texas Panhandle, as he voted against the textbooks. “I think in my constituency, I will be a ‘no’ for this.”
The board will cast its final votes on the new health textbooks on Friday, after the publishers have had a chance to revise them.The culture war centered on gender issues and how sexuality is taught in schools has been fought each time the Board of Education sets new requirements for health studies, or reviews new textbooks.
LAST WEEK: Gov. Abbott calls for standards to rid school libraries of ‘pornographic’ books, images.
But this time it comes as national conservative groups pledge to fight what they consider leftist indoctrination on campus. This year, parents have led grassroots campaigns to remove certain books from at least a half-dozen Texas school districts.
A Fort Worth lawmaker took it a step further by sending letters to nearly two dozen school districts with a list of 800 books, asking if they had any of them on their library shelves. Most of state Rep. Matt Krause’s list was made up of books written to teach children and teens about sexuality and LGBTQ issues.
Gov. Greg Abbott weighed in on Nov. 8, saying school boards are to blame for inappropriate books and directing Texas education agencies to develop statewide standards for selecting them.
Those on the left call it a cynical effort to censor discussion of issues relating to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Well over 100 members of the public spoke for or against the health textbooks on Tuesday.
Several middle school health textbooks were presented to the board for approval based on standards it set last year. They include requirements for students to learn about contraceptive methods, rather than just abstinence. The board did not include requirements for students to be taught about sexual orientation or gender identity. But textbooks can go beyond the minimum standards, and the health books included information about human sexuality and reproduction.
“When you read the media reports, it kept on saying that we were adopting standards on sex education. And we were doing no such thing,” said Tom Maynard, a Republican, saying instead that the board adopted health standards and sex education is left up to local school districts. “What we’re getting in a lot of comments is the fact that there’s a lot of content in some of these texts … that goes beyond what we adopted … That we intentionally left off because it’s intended to be handled separately from health education.”
Generally, the dozens who spoke against the textbooks were frustrated that the textbooks for middle school students included information about consent, gender identity and sexual orientation, among other topics. Many in the public felt misled, noting that the board had made a concession in 2020 to move away from abstinence only sex education, but now the textbooks were going even further by presenting issues of sexuality frankly to middle schoolers.
Those who supported the textbooks pointed out that the board’s decision to endorse the books does not require any schools to buy them. It is meant instead as a resource for schools that align with the curriculum standards, and because nonpartisan staff found the proposed books covered all or almost all of the TEKS, voting them down would be fruitless.“
This is an educational Dumpster fire,” said Val Benavidez, president of the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that monitors the education board. “Too many board members simply surrendered to extremists who see nothing but a conspiracy to sexualize students in a state where many of those students say they’re already having sex. Our youth, including those who identify as LGBTQ, need a truth-and science-based education that helps them make healthy life decisions.”There was concern among many on the board that failing to endorse any of the health textbooks would be confusing for educators around the state, leaving them unsure of what books are best.“
It feels like we’re about to leave a lot of districts in the dark with this, because I know a lot of them can’t afford to just go out and find their own material,” said Aicha Davis, a Democrat from Dallas. edward.mckinley@chron.com