A CALL TO ACTION FOR TEXAS RESIDENTS (Take Action this June 2025! )

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

Update: On April 25, 2025, the current US Department of Ed affirmed the right of school districts, tribal school districts, and colleges and universities to teach "Native history." Learn more here.

This June, we are calling on the Texas SBOE to bring the course renewal up for a vote on June 26-27th and for the course to be renewed without any further delays or changes in review procedure.

For more recent information, watch the testimonies on April 10 and the SBOE discussion on April 11.

You can see the current approved innovative course standards here.

Background:

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 adoption on the SBOE agenda for an entire year. The AI/NS innovative course expires at the end of the 2025 academic year. After being pulled from the agenda in January 2025, the AI/NS course renewal was finally placed on the April agenda in 2025. The renewal vote was postponed, however, with SBOE leadership and TEA adding a review of the recommended course materials to the process. This represents a change in the review process in the middle of the current application cycle.

Because districts make crucial decisions about implementing new courses in winter and early Spring, the course need to be renewed as soon as possible. If the AI/NS innovative course is not renewed this academic year, then it could expire and get added to a "sunset list."

The renewal vote has now been delayed for two board meetings in January and April. We are calling on Texas SBOE leadership to bring the course renewal up for a vote on June 26-27th and for the course to be renewed without any further delays or sudden changes in procedure.

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.

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.

You can also call your SBOE rep. You can use this tool to find out who they are.

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 by the end of 2025 academic year so that the innovative course does not expire for the following academic year. If the innovative course is allowed to expire, many districts will back away from teaching the course next year.

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 the temporary political rhetoric of the day.

Native communities have been part of Texas for thousands of years and they will continue residing in Texas for thousands of years. Both federal and state institutions are beholden to laws and treaties that safeguard the cultural and educational rights of Native communities.

Texas Native and Ethnic Studies communities needs your help.

Let's make history together.