A CALL TO ACTION FOR RESIDENTS OF SBOE DISTRICT 15

For more than four years, 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 fully intended to move forward with the course in January 2024, the new Abbott-Appointed SBOE Chair, Aaron Kinsey, has chosen to refuse the American Indian/Native Studies course a place in the SBOE agenda for the almost a year. If the SBOE Board does not review the course this year, then the course will not be allowed to experience the same course enrollment growth that the currently approved Ethnic Studies course enjoy. While districts can and should offer the course as soon as possible, many will experience confusion and hesitation, leading to further delays for local course implementation.*

SBOE Chair Kinsey should add the AI/NS course to the next SBOE agenda.

Watch this June 10th press conference or June 28th playlist for more updated information.

We are calling on Chair Kinsey's constituents in District 15 to call and email Chair Kinsey as soon as possible.

Chair Kinsey is responsible for the following counties: Andrews, Archer, Armstrong, Bailey, Baylor, Borden, Briscoe, Brown, Callahan, Carson, Castro, Childress, Cochran, Coke, Coleman, Collingsworth, Concho, Cottle, Crane, Crosby, Dallam, Dawson, Deaf Smith, Dickens, Donley, Ector, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Gaines, Garza, Glasscock, Gray, Hale, Hall, Hansford, Hardeman, Hartley, Haskell, Hemphill, Hockley, Howard, Hutchinson, Irion, Jones, Kent, King, Knox, Lamb, Lipscomb, Loving, Lubbock, Lynn, Martin, McCulloch, Midland, Mitchell, Moore, Motley, Nolan, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Reagan, Roberts, Runnels, Scurry, Shackelford, Sherman, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Swisher, Taylor, Terry, Throckmorton, Tom Green, Upton, Ward, Wheeler, Wichita, Wilbarger, Winkler, Yoakum, and Young.

If you are unsure if you are one of his constituents, use this tool to find out. You can still call and email Chair Kinsey if you are a Texas resident. As Chair, he is still accountable to you.

Step 1: Make a Call

Take a minute to review the course.

Then call Chair Kinsey at (325) 238-6050.

We encourage you to personalize the script as much as possible.

Sample Phone Script: "Hello, my name is ______. I am one of your constituents. I live in _____. I am calling because I would really like for you to place the American Indian/Native Studies course on the next available SBOE agenda. I have looked at the course, and I believe it can and should be reviewed for TEKS adoption this year."

Step 2: Send a Personal Email

Use this email tool to send Chair Kinsey a personalized email. This is not a petition that you click send and go. You can and should make the suggested email text your own. If you are a constituent and/or are a member of a tribal community, make sure to tell him this in your email.

Step 3: Sign and Share the Petition

If you have not yet done so, sign and share the AI/NS petition. It can be signed by anyone who wants the AI/NS course to be adopted in Texas.

Step 4: Ask Your District to Offer the AI/NS Course

From 2024-2025, districts can offer the AI/NS Innovative course. After 2025, districts will either be able to offer the course as an Innovative Course or as a Special Topics course. Grand Prairie ISD is ready and willing to share resources and offers a yearly summer professional development. Districts can and should continue to prepare themselves to offer the course. Regardless of what happens at the SBOE this year or next, we encourage you to begin the local course adoption process now.

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 two 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 and Crowley ISD, along with a few 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 Governor Abbott-appointed 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 nearly a thousand Texans, Kinsey then did not to place the AI/NS course on the April agenda. Or the June agenda. Or the September. Or the November. Since then, Chair Kinsey has focused on reviewing the recommended course materials, which will not be part of the official TEKS adoption process.

Most recently, Chair Kinsey has stated that the AI/NS course is already an innovative course. If the course is not approved this year, however, it's innovative course status will need to be renewed. Additionally, the SBOE board itself called for the creation of a course in Native American Studies in 2018. The community answered the call. For more than four years a team of native and native ally volunteers worked to create a course that the SBOE had indicated it would consider for the social studies elective catalogue, right next to Mexican American Studies, African American Studies, and a future course in Asian American Studies that could also be delayed if these delays continue. While all districts should continue to offer the AI/NS course as planned, the course deserves to be considered for full TEKS adoption as soon as possible. Both students and districts deserve the certainty and continuity that TEKS adoption will allow.

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 experience a slow process of neglect simply because there has been a change in leadership.

Today, the voices of residents of SBOE District 15 are crucial for the AI/NS course and Ethnic Studies in general. We need your help to make history together.