Propublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates power abuse. Sign up and receive the biggest story as soon as it’s published.
This article is published in collaboration with Texas Tribune, a non-profit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages Texans. Sign up for Bried Weekly and stay on track to essential coverage of Texas issues.
In 2022, a conservative group celebrated a “big victory” over the “wake” curriculum when the Texas Board of Education crushed the proposed social science requirements for schools that included teaching kindergarten children, Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez “advocated for positive change.”
Another victory came a year later as the state commission rejected several textbooks that Republicans claimed could promote a “radical environmental agenda” as they presented what they perceived climate change to human behavior or as a negative portrayal of fossil fuels.
By the time the state board approved a science- and career-focused textbook for use in Texas classrooms at the end of 2023, it appeared to be in sync and comfortable sync with conservatives who have gained control of local school boards throughout the state in recent years.
But the Republican-led state school board hasn’t made it enough for the conservative majority of Texas’s third largest school district’s school board.
At the end of the school board meeting last May, Natalie Brazingham, a board member for the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District, outside of Houston, proposed stripping at least 12 chapters from five textbooks approved by the state board and recommended by the district committee of teachers and staff.
Blasingame said it was inappropriate for students as he discussed “vaccines and polio,” touched on “the topic of depopulation,” and included “an agenda from the United Nations,” and included the “view that humans are bad,” Brasingame said.
In a less publicized move, former bilingual educator Blasingame proposed omitting some chapters from the textbook for aspiring educators entitled “Education.” One of these chapters focuses on how to understand and educate a diverse learner, saying that it is “up to the school and teachers to help all students be comfortable, accepted and appreciated,” and that “when schools view diversity as a positive force, students can work effectively in a diverse society.”
Blasingame did not provide any additional details regarding her opposition to the chapters during the meeting. She didn’t have to do that. The school board voted 6-1 to remove them.
Natalie Brazingame, a member of the Cypress Fairbanks Board of Education, proposed chapters from five textbooks. Credit: Danielle Villasana from Propublica and Texas Tribune
The decision to strip the chapters from books that have already been approved by the state’s conservative school boards represents an escalation of the efforts of local school boards to influence what children in public schools are being taught. Over the years, the battle for textbooks has been unfolding at the state level, where Republicans are the majority. However, local school boards, which appear to be nonpartisan, largely avoided such a fight. They were heavily on whether some books should be in the library, but rarely intervened directly in classroom instruction. Christopher Cresza, a scholar at Rice University’s Public Policy Institute, said Cypress Fairbanks is currently offering a model to overcharge these efforts with more granular control.
“One thing that concerns me is that it’s an ideology that promotes education standards rather than fact,” he said.
The board’s actions send a nasty message to students of color, said Alissa Sundrani, a junior at Cy-Fair High School. “I think that’s the question of whether Texas is not in the guidelines to the extent of what we want to learn, at the point where diversity or making people feel safe and included.”
Around 120,000 students, 80% of whom are Hispanic, Black and Asian students, Cy-fair is Texas’ largest school district, with ideologically driven, conservative candidates taking over. Blasingame was one of the candidates selected through a large voting system that what Propublica and the Texas Tribune found was leveraged by conservative groups trying to influence what children are being taught about race and gender. Advocates say that a system in which votes for all candidates across the district, rather than a voter living within a specific geographical boundary, brings a broader expression for students, but voting advocates argue that they dilute voters’ power.
First image: Cy-Fair’s management building. Second image: People gather before a school board meeting. Credit: Danielle Villasana from Propublica and Texas Tribune
Blasingame and others opposed the teachings of critical racial theory, a sophisticated academic concept that discusses systematic racism. Most of the winners received financial support from the Texans for their educational freedom. This was a statewide PAC that sought to build a “home” for the Board of Education Council, and “promised to fight key race theories and other anti-American agendas and curriculum.” The PAC helped select at least 30 school board candidates statewide between 2021 and 2023. This focuses on anti-CRT sentiment, which is why founder Christopher Zuck Jr. said. He said. “The vote showed that the message worked.”
Just before Brasingerm and two fellow conservatives won the election in 2021, Texas lawmakers passed a groundbreaking law that sought to shape the way teachers approach leadership on race and racism. Laws aimed at banning critical racial theory prohibit the “indoctrination” of the notion that someone’s race is “inherently racist, sexist or oppressive” by nature.
When Blasingame urged the chapter to remove the chapter on teaching diverse student organizations, he did not mention the law, but pointed it out as a reason for his text message dissent and interviews with Propublica and The Tribune. Blasingame admitted that one of the chapters has “a very good presentation on learning styles,” but she said that removing the entire chapter is her only option.
The textbook referred to “cultural humility” and asked teachers to assert themselves to look into “intentional and subtle biases.” Educational institutions had to act as the book “slid down” before implementing plans to ensure state educational institutions adhere to the law, Blasingame said.
Blasingame recommended that some chapters be removed from the textbook called “Teaching.” The chapter included references to “cultural humility” and “unintentional subtle bias.” We believe this is not permitted under state law. Credits: Documents and documents expanded by Propublica and Texas Tribune
State board president Aaron Kinsey, stubbornly anti-CRT, refused to say whether he thought the body had allowed him to slip through the textbook, as Blasingame suggested. However, Kinsey said in a statement that the agreement with the approved publisher includes a requirement that the textbook be compliant with all applicable laws. He did not comment on the Cy-Fair removal chapter.
Cy-fair appears to employ one of the state’s most aggressive approaches to enforce the law rather than addressing the content of the textbook, but rather the way educators approach education.
“It feels like Cy-Fair is trying to test the boundaries of the law,” Duggins-Clay said. “And in districts like Saifair, it’s so diverse that I think it’s actively hurting a lot of young people who end up paying the costs and end up being burdened by these very bad policies.”
The ambiguity of the law has attracted criticism from conservative groups that allow school districts to avoid the ban. Last month, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Coppel School District in northern Texas, accusing him of illegally teaching the “awakening” CRT curriculum. The lawsuit points to a secret recording of administrators who say the district will do the right thing for students “despite what our state standards say.” The lawsuit does not provide examples of curriculum that claims to be in violation of state law regarding how race is taught. In a letter to parents, Secretary Brad Hunt said the district was in compliance with state standards and “continue to fully comply with applicable state and federal laws.”
Teachers and progressive groups also argue that the law leaves too much open to interpretation that educators can use to cause self-censorship and target people that refer to race.
Blazingam challenges the criticism. The longtime administrator and teacher who moved from South Africa when her family was nine years old, she said she embraced the diversity of the school.
“Diversity is people, and I love people,” she said. “That’s what I did. First as a Christian, then as an educator.”
However, she opposes teaching systemic racism and national sanctions efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and states emphasising the importance of skin color.
“They will seed hatred, teach students what they start from behind, and they will suffer for the rest of their lives that they have disadvantages that they cannot conquer,” Brazingame said. “This not only teaches hatred among people, but how can we love a country where this is true?”
Teaching diversity is simply wrong in claiming that students turn students of color into victims, educators and students told news organizations. Instead, they said such arguments made them feel safe and accepting.
One educator using the “education” textbook said the decision by board members to remove chapters related to diversity was painful for students.
How investigative journalists actually found fraud, waste, and abuse
“I don’t know what their true intentions are, but to my students, what they see is that you don’t care unless you fit the mold and you’re like them,” said the teacher who didn’t want to name her because she was afraid of losing her job. “Some people said they didn’t want to teach them anymore because they felt they weren’t supported.”
The board’s interpretation of state laws regarding racial education has curtailed discussions in key classrooms, according to district student Sundrani. Her AP English class was a seminar on the novel “Huckleberry Finn” and avoided what I think was a terrible and necessary conversation about race, slavery and how its history affects people today.
“There were topics that we couldn’t discuss.”
