The Texas Education Agency has to correct roughly 4,200 errors in a Bible-infused elementary school curriculum that was approved by the state two years ago, the State Board of Education said Friday.
Board members postponed voting on an education agency request to correct those errors during its final meeting of the week, saying they needed more time to review the corrections.
That includes 547 requests to replace images with “licensing issues,” said Pam Little, the board’s Republican vice chair. It also includes formatting errors, typos and incorrect page numbers.
Records obtained by The Texas Tribune through an open records request revealed additional complaints from educators about problems like missing pages, incorrect answer keys and books falling apart.
“What a waste of taxpayer dollars!” read one complaint to the Texas Education Agency. “This disaster has doubled the workload on my teachers, and as an administrator who saw the value in an aligned curriculum, I am embarrassed.”
Republican board member Audrey Young, who chairs the board’s instruction committee, said Friday that her committee has seen a high number of corrections before, but not “in the 1,000s, plural,” she said.
Four other publishers that submitted correction requests, for comparison, reported a combined 16 errors.
Colin Dempsey, the education agency’s director of district operations, technology and sustainability supports, told board members the roughly 4,200 edits span more than 2,100 components of the curriculum, known as Bluebonnet Learning. Bluebonnet, developed by the education agency, includes math and reading language arts in English and Spanish.
The corrections, Dempsey said, include fixes to relatively minor errors present across multiple units. Bluebonnet also has a significantly higher number of components than other publishers do, he said.
“I think there’s going to be corrections,” Dempsey said. “That’s why we have this process.”
Little, the vice chair, agreed on the minor nature of some edits but said she still considers them “pretty sloppy publishing.” The need to replace images concerns her most, she said.
“The fact that they have requested licensing changes and the fact that they have these items in here leaves us open to lawsuits for a violation of copyright laws,” said Little, who formerly served as regional vice president for Houghton Mifflin Publishers.
Historically in Texas, learning materials rife with errors have drawn scrutiny across the political spectrum. Two Democratic members, Gustavo Reveles and Marisa B. Pérez-Díaz, noted that Texas publishers sign affidavits prior to submitting their materials for approval. Those affidavits indicate that the authors checked for errors.
“What I want to ensure is that all publishers are being held to the same standard,” Pérez-Díaz said. “It’s quite alarming to hear and to learn of all of these errors, especially licensure errors, at this late an hour.”
Bluebonnet’s reading portion attracted national attention in 2024 for its references to the Bible and Christianity. Roughly a third of Texans follow other faiths or no faith at all.
The education agency has said the religious references make up only a fraction of the overall product. Multiple analyses have found that the 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.
The State Board of Education narrowly approved Bluebonnet, often touted by state leaders as high-quality instructional material, in November 2024. 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 school districts.
The board voted Friday to postpone its decision on the education agency’s correction request until its next meeting.
The board’s next official meeting is scheduled for April. However, Chair Aaron Kinsey, a Republican, said Friday he plans to call a special meeting at an undisclosed date to address some of the board’s unfinished business from the week.
Until the board approves the request, the current materials will remain in place.
“The 4,200-plus changes, for me, is unprecedented,” said Republican board member Will Hickman. “I just saw the list yesterday, and I just need more time for myself to consider those before I’m able to approve these changes.”
