Bill expanding ethnic studies in schools faces headwinds
A group of House Democrats on Wednesday morning renewed their efforts to make ethnic studies courses count toward state high school graduation requirements.
Last session, the bill passed the House and moved through a Senate committee with bipartisan support, but it ultimately stalled in the Senate. Now, it might be an even heavier lift as the political discourse around education, particularly how race is discussed at school, has grown increasingly charged.
The courses to which this bill would apply were approved with bipartisan support by the State Board of Education, and they include Mexican American studies and African American studies. Currently, those classes are offered by some schools as electives, but they don’t count toward the social studies graduation requirements, which would be changed.
“This session, we are sending it through to the governor’s desk right. The courses in HB 45 have been proven to increase graduation rates, engage students in their learning and increase their likelihood of enrolling in college. And that is so important in a post-pandemic world that we live in,” said Rep. Christina Morales, a Houston Democrat who authored the bill.
Under House Bill 45, schools would also be required to make the courses available to their students, whether it be on-campus or through an online course partnered with another school district. Morales said the major public education advocacy groups are in support of the measure.
Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, of San Antonio, acknowledged the “odds and headwinds” facing Morales’ bill when he commended her on filing it again this year.
“You cannot miss a news cycle without reading about some initiative to take away history, some initiative to rewrite curriculum at the State Board of Ed, some initiative to threaten college campuses,” Martinez Fischer said, noting this bill would do the opposite, promoting diversity and inclusion. “Ev
erybody seems to be walking on political eggshells these days.”
Several members of the Mexican American and Black legislative groups spoke at a press conference in the Texas Capitol about the importance of such classes. At one point, Rep. Jarvis Johnson, a Houston Democrat, asked how many in the crowd owned yearbooks from when they were in high school. Most raised their hands.
“When you scroll through your yearbook, you oftentimes move quickly through the yearbook. Because you were not in the badminton class, so you move through. And if you didn’t play basketball, you move through it quickly,” Johnson said. “But somehow, when we got to that page that you were on, you kind of stop, do you not? You kind of look at yourself a little differently, and you looked good, your hair was nice, and you really take pride in it.”
Ethnic studies courses are like that, Johnson, Morales and other lawmakers and educators said. They make students of color in Texas schools feel more engaged with the lessons, and they provide historical understanding that can be used as a tool to engage with modern political debates.
In the last several years, conservative parents have expressed anger to lawmakers, local school boards and the State Board of Education. Their complaints have often stemmed from a belief that Texas school curriculums are too “woke” and are placing increased emphasis on nonwhite, LGBTQ+ or sectarian perspectives.
Texas Republicans, like the GOP around the country, has responded to that criticism by restricting diversity and inclusion initiatives in education, as well as calling for enhanced “school choice” policies providing money for parents to pull their kids out of public school.
Rep. Gene Wu, another Houston Democrat, noted the value of ethnic studies in social studies in the case of the protests that have been spurred in Texas’ Asian American community by the bill that was filed to bar Chinese citizens from owning land in the state.
“In discussing this type of legislation, we had to dig deep into our community’s history, and try to explain to people why our community was so angry at these types of legislation,” Wu said.
“And we had to explain to people, Hey, back in the 1800s, y’all already did this. Right? You did this before. Back in the 1900s. Y’all did this again. Back in World War II. Y’all did this again during the Japanese internment, and all based on the same themes and the same ideas of the rationales apply.”