Taxpayers hit with bill as 4,200 corrections needed in Bible-infused education curriculum

The Texas Education Agency received initial approval Wednesday to correct roughly 4,200 errors in its elementary school curriculum.

Voting 8-6, the State Board of Education preliminarily approved the changes to Bluebonnet Learning after delaying a vote in January. Members had said they needed more time to review copyright concerns, formatting errors and typos. The final vote is expected Wednesday or Thursday.

On Wednesday, some board members questioned whether the errors indicated a need to change Texas’ review process for learning materials, while others asked the education agency to provide an estimate of the corrections’ cost to taxpayers. Texans will bear the financial burden of the corrections because the education agency developed the materials using state funding.

“I think that when we have mistakes, that kind of undercuts the trust that we're building with our local trustees and our local administrators,” said Republican board member Brandon Hall, who supported the corrections.

Colin Dempsey, a Texas Education Agency official who helps organize the instructional material review process, said the agency planned to calculate the costs after the State Board of Education voted on the changes.

Dempsey also said the agency has increased the number of people who review publishing materials since Bluebonnet received approval in November 2024, expressing optimism that the increase would help the state catch errors earlier in the process. State Board of Education rules, Dempsey added, do not specify accountability measures when the board finds errors in state publishing materials.

“Clearly it's something that we need to address,” he said.

Several board members who voted against the changes Wednesday have long opposed Bluebonnet. The reading and language arts curriculum attracted national attention in 2024 for its references to the Bible and Christianity.

The education agency has said the religious references make up only a fraction of the overall product, which includes reading and math. Multiple analyses have found that the reading curriculum skews heavily in favor of Christianity compared to other religions. Parents and historians have also expressed concerns about the materials downplaying America’s history of racism and slavery.

Roughly 1 in 4 school districts have indicated that they’re using at least some portions of the reading curriculum, covering about 400,000 students. The materials come with a $60 per-student incentive for districts.

Some board members requested Wednesday to hear from education agency officials who worked on Bluebonnet. Other board members said the Bluebonnet developers reached out to them directly and offered to address concerns or questions about the 4,200 errors prior to the meeting. Republican Aaron Kinsey, the board chair, said he could not force the publishers to testify if they were unwilling.

Dempsey advised against having the individuals testify, saying the agency preferred to keep dialogue between its staff overseeing the review process and board members.

Before the initial vote, board members acknowledged the trivial nature of some errors identified in Bluebonnet, while standing firm on concerns about what Republican Pam Little described as “sloppy publishing.”

“We are basically putting content out there that has not met the legislative request of us to remove, to review materials for quality and suitability,” Little said.

Democratic board member Tiffany Clark said the board and the education agency harmed students by allowing schools to teach flawed materials.

“If this is a product they've been using because they believe it was a high-quality instructional material, again, we have failed our students this school year,” Clark said.

After the board’s final vote, the education agency will update the online version of the materials within 30 days and begin replacing physical books and teacher guides.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.