Texas Board of Ed, Jan. 6th Riot Supporter ‘Julie Pickren’ Pushes Prager-U Curriculum for Texas Students That Teaches ‘Climate Denial’
Hello SAISD Parents and San Antonio Community,
This week I want to share an update about how one State Board of Education member, Julie Pickren, believes that the best curriculum to help our teachers and students is Prager U, a nonprofit that offers educational services to other states. Now, this will be provided our districts and educators as an optional set of what TEA calls “high-quality materials designed especially for Texas.”
Parents, you can look at videos and other books on their website at https://www.prageru.com. Remember that these videos, books, and all the material they offer schools are controversial and based on their politics. The only good news is that it’s an option for our Texas schools, but know that this nonprofit provides material for Pre-K -12th grade. I encourage all of you to watch the video as they announce that they will be working in Texas and how they talk about including the 10 Commandments, which is a bill that failed this past 88th legislation (Republicans in Texas failed to pass legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school classroom.)
Now, with the help of HB1605, which states the following: “Relating to instructional material and technology, the adoption of essential knowledge and skills for certain public school foundation curriculum subjects, and the extension of additional state aid to school districts for the provision of certain instructional materials; authorizing a fee.” This is how our state can provide our school with this option, but know that this company will charge a fee for the material which will come out of our school district’s budget. However, Keven Ellis, the chair of the State Board of Education, said that no one from Prager U had contacted him or ever sent the board any information. So, it seems that SBOE member Julie Pickern took it upon herself to hire Prager U to provide an additional curriculum to help our teachers.
As I looked further into Julie Pickren, who received major backlash for attending the January 6th riot and ran on the platform of banning ‘Critical Race Theory’ and invoking ‘Christianity’ in our schools. Do we want someone who doesn’t understand our government laws and choosing what our teachers will teach in a classroom? Especially after Prager U announced that they can now offer “climate denial” as an educational resource in Florida. Now the question is, if our school district chooses to use Prager U materials, what will our children learn about climate control, politics, and other subjects? What happened to the “Parent’s Rights “Bill? What happened to letting parents be more involved with their child’s learning?
As we approach a third session on school finances, we must ask how much this nonsense will cost our state. Then what happens to our children and their education. In my opinion, the whole thing is just wrong; and it will end up costing Texas millions of dollars that could have been spent on raises for our teachers and staff along with an increase in our basic allotment per student. Parents, please speak up and ask: Are we really going to let a company teach our children this nonsense?
Next week I will go over the new grading system that TEA will be using for the A-F scale. Until next week please send me your opinions or questions to me at lena.lopez@observer.com.
Have a Blessed Week,
Lena Lopez
