After years of bitter debate over whether ethnic studies courses are racially divisive, the Texas State Board of Education appears poised to approve its first African American studies course next year.
The 15-member board, which is responsible for setting curriculum standards and adopting textbooks for Texas public schools, heard from dozens of students, educators and advocates at a public hearing Wednesday, most who favored the new course.
"We will be passing this," said board member Pat Hardy, a Fort Worth Republican.
The board's seeming consensus marks a tremendous shift: In 2014, many Republicans voted down a proposal to create a Mexican American studies course, arguing it would divide instead of unite students. Hardy herself was a skeptic, saying: "We're not about Hispanic history; we're about American history."
Over the next several months, the board will create curriculum standards for the course based on an existing class in the Dallas Independent School District, and is expected to take a final vote in April. It's the same process the board used to approve a Mexican American studies course last year, based on an existing course in Houston ISD.
Hardy told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday that she has always been a proponent of ethnic studies. She said the timing in 2014 was not right for a Mexican American studies course because the board and its staff did not have time to build a set of requirements for it from scratch.
Board member Ruben Cortez, the Brownsville Democrat who first proposed the Mexican American studies course in 2014, has a different theory for the change of heart: "After that long drawn-out five-year fight to get Mexican American studies approved, [Republicans] don't want to deal with it anymore."
It's also possible that fiery debates could reignite when board members meet next January and April to discuss curriculum standards for the new course.
