Should State Policymakers Decide What Every Student Reads?
A policy change out of Texas raises questions about the role of state-level policymakers in public education
The AI School Librarian digs deep into Texas’s state-mandated reading list. The policy, which creates a selection of required texts all students in Texas public schools will be required to read, raises questions about the balance of power when it comes to education policy.
Historically, a lot of power rests in local hands when it comes to education. State and federal leaders set guidelines and provide funding, but local Boards of Education often have the final say in how their district will meet state standards or teach state-approved curriculum.
The Texas reading list alters this balance.
Excerpts from this excellent AI School Librarian piece explain the potential impact.
Whether or not it is technically the first of its kind, the Texas policy represents one of the most comprehensive state-mandated literary works lists adopted in recent decades. Beginning in 2030, public schools will be required to teach specific literary works selected by the Texas State Board of Education. The list includes nearly 200 required works spanning kindergarten through high school, including classic literature, historical documents, speeches, poetry, and selected Biblical passages.
As our trusted librarian explains:
The real story isn’t the books.
It’s who gets to decide they’re required reading.
For decades, curriculum decisions have been shared across multiple levels of public education. States establish academic standards that outline what students should know and be able to do. Local school boards adopt curriculum. District curriculum leaders select instructional materials. Teachers decide how lessons are taught. School librarians build collections that support classroom instruction while also helping students discover books beyond the required curriculum.
Whether other states follow Texas’s lead remains to be seen. What is clear is that conversations about curriculum are no longer taking place only in local school board meetings. Increasingly, they are happening in state legislatures and state boards of education, and those decisions have the potential to shape what millions of students read for years to come.
My current representative on the Texas State Board of Education was a participant in the storming of the capital on January 6th. An election denier and completely unqualified to be telling my children, grandchildren or anybodies children what they should read. This also goes for the Texas SBOE being totally unqualified to decide what goes into textbooks which is what is currently happening with the Bluebonnet curriculum with its over 4000 errors, that is costing the taxpayers a lot of money to fix. If people don't wake up and vote these people out in November public schools are over anyway.