The $8.4 million tab, first reported by FOX4 Dallas-Fort Worth, comes at a time when state leaders criticize school districts for a funding crisis they view as caused, in part, by poor planning and reckless spending.
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Bluebonnet, an elementary and secondary school reading and math program that state leaders often tout as high-quality, comes with a $60 per-student incentive for districts that use it. As of last year, nearly 600 districts planned to use some of the materials.
The K-5 reading portion faces criticism for its use of Bible stories, while others express concerns about the lessons downplaying racism and slavery.
Good to see people calling this shit out.
The USA has no centralized education standards or curriculum outside of “incentive” programs such as standardized testing which rewards funds to participating schools.
The result is stuff like this has flown under the radar for too damn long.
I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but IIRC, it used to be the case that Texas choices related to textbooks had an outsized influence on the rest of the country. Which would be fine if they were progressive, but because they tend to be regressive instead, it’s exactly what we don’t need…
(had to look it up, since I was curious if my memory was accurate…)
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/06/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/
With these kinds of nefarious anti-intellectual schemes from xtian zealots going on for decades, it’s no wonder so many American adults still don’t understand biology 101 and reject evolution, LOL.
They’ve asked schools to whitewash Texas history and indoctrinate children with the Christian religion to gain additional funding? I look forward to the lawsuit.
They’ve been doing this kind of thing for decades and getting away with it, AFAIK.
This was written back in 2012…
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/06/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/
It’ll go to the Fifth Circuit and the judge will insist the government is neglegent because the material isn’t Christian enough.
But because all of this is just money laundering and embezzlement by another name, you hear “Should we teach Jesus in school?” when the real debate should be “Should we let the AG’s mistress, cousin, and mega-donor former roommate collect a paycheck while churning out AI slop for children’s textbooks?”
Why not both? Sure, they are going to make money, but many of them want to do that while pushing the Seven Mountain Mandate insanity onto an underage captive audience.
They want xtian nationalist madrasas.
I’m quite sure there is an element of grifting in there somewhere, but I would not underestimate the zealotry we are dealing with here.
They want xtian nationalist madrasas.
There’s a vocal minority of Christian nationalists who want that. And then there’s a cadre of demagogues who will serve it up, dribble by dribble, if it means skimming tens of millions off the top.
If Bluebonnet was a serious organization, they wouldn’t be fumbling the rollout and ultimately delaying how quickly they could get their propaganda into schoolkids’s hands. But what we’re seeing in practice is naked graft, stamped with a cross and draped in the American flag.
