A CALL TO ACTION FOR TEXAS RESIDENTS

Note: This is an email tool, not a petition. Please make sure to personalize your email by modifying the email text and subject line, and adding at least one reason why you support the AI/NS course.

Since 2020, a team of native and native ally volunteers have worked to create a course in Native American Studies that the Texas SBOE called for in 2018. Although the previous SBOE Chair intended to move forward with the course in January 2024, the new Abbott-appointed SBOE Chair, Aaron Kinsey, has neglected to place the American Indian/Native Studies (AI/NS) course on the SBOE agenda for an entire year. This January 2025, the AI/NS innovative course, which is the pilot course that districts are currently using to offer the course was scheduled for renewal, but the item was pulled from the agenda. The AI/NS course renewal was finally placed on the agenda in April 2025, but the vote was postponed, with SBOE leadership and TEA adding a review of the recommended course materials to the process.

Normally, innovative course renewals take place in January, but this year, they have been delayed for two SBOE meetings. The AI/NS innovative course expires at the end of this academic year, so if it is not renewed by then, it could go into a "sunset" process.

The promptness of the course renewal is also important because it allows districts to make crucial decisions about implementing the course locally, decisions which normally get made very far in advance.

We are calling on Texas SBOE leadership to stop changing the process mid-stream and bring the course renewals up for a vote as soon as possible. We are also calling on all Texas SBOE members to vote in favor of the course renewal as soon as it comes up for a vote.

Watch the testimonies at the SBOE on November 22 and January 31 for more recent information.

You can see the current approved innovative course standards here.

Regardless of what happens at the SBOE this year, districts can and should continue to offer the course. Districts will be able to offer the AI/NS course as an Innovative Course, if renewed, or as a Special Topics course. Grand Prairie ISD is ready and willing to share resources and offers a yearly summer professional development. We encourage you to begin the process of local adoption now.

How can you help?

We are calling on all Texas residents to email the Texas SBOE to request that they apply a fair and achievable process of review to the AI/NS course so that it can ultimately be renewed.

We are also calling on all Texas residents and allies in other states to sign and share the course petition.

Step 1: Send a Personal Email

Use this email tool to send the Texas SBOE a personalized email. This is not a petition that you click send and go. Make sure to introduce yourself, especially if you are a constituent and/or are a member of a tribal community. Please make the suggested email text your own.

For more impact, you can also call your SBOE rep. You can use this tool to find out who they are.

Step 2: Sign and Share the Petition

If you have not yet done so, sign and share the AI/NS petition. Anyone can sign the petition.

Step 3: Call SBOE Members to help us gather additional support

You will see phone numbers and sample call scripts after you send your email.

Step 4: Ask Your Affiliated Organization to Sign onto this Organizational Letter

Step 5: Ask Your District to Offer the AI/NS Course

If you have capacity to ask your district to offer the course, email the ethnicstudiesnetworkoftexas@gmail.com to ask for guidance on how you can make the ask.

How did we get here?

Since the Spring of 2020, a committee of Native community members and allies have been collectively developing a course in American Indian/Native Studies. The AI/NS course has been piloted at Grand Prairie ISD for three and a half years and was approved as an Innovative Course by the Texas Education Agency in the summer of 2023. Since then, the course has been adopted or is in the process of being adopted in Robstown ISD, Crowley ISD, and several other districts.

In November of 2023, previous SBOE Chair Ellis stated that he intended to place the AI/NS course for first reading on the January 2024 SBOE agenda.  In January 2024, the new SBOE Chair Aaron Kinsey pulled the AI/NS course from its expected place in the SBOE agenda. After receiving hundreds of emails and a petition signed by more than two thousand Texans, Chair Kinsey did not place the AI/NS course on the April, June, September, or November agendas. Instead, the Texas SBOE focused on passing a controversial curriculum project that sought to embed Christianity in the elementary curriculum.

Last March, Chair Kinsey stated that the AI/NS course was already an innovative course and that it was already available to Texas students. However, the course's innovative status expires at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year. It is crucial that the AI/NS course be renewed in January 2025 as school districts set their calendars for the following year in the early winter. If the innovative course is not renewed in January, some districts could back away from teaching the course.

Despite heightened political rhetoric that makes it seem as if moving the course forward is impossible, a bipartisan assortment of SBOE board reps continue to support the course. They just need to have the opportunity to actually consider the course for renewal and adoption. However, Chair Kinsey is the only board member with the power to place the AI/NS course on the SBOE agenda for either process.

While all districts should continue to offer the AI/NS course as planned, the innovative course should be renewed and considered for full TEKS adoption as soon as possible.

The Texas community has been calling for Ethnic Studies courses for more than 40 years. More than thirty years ago, the SBOE approved Ethnic Studies courses, only to not fully support them or turn away from them when new leadership came in. Between 2018 and 2023, the SBOE board was willing to support Ethnic Studies courses on a bi-partisan basis. Let's not allow the American Indian/Native Studies course to become hostage to a political rhetoric that presumes dialogue and collaboration is impossible.

Today, the Texas Native and Ethnic Studies community needs your help.

Let's make history together.