Texas Is Restoring the Proud Story of America

For too long, too many American students have graduated without understanding the country they inherited. 

They may know scattered names and dates, but they lack the full context of American history: the greatness of Western civilization, the ideas behind our founding, the sacrifices that built this nation, and the principles that allowed America to become the most prosperous and consequential country in the world. 

Texas is changing that. 

After years of work, Texas has rewritten its K-12 social studies standards to restore American history and Western civilization to their proper place in the classroom. The goal is simple but profound: teach history with full context, build understanding of the ideals and values that created America, and ensure our children know why this country is exceptional. 

The need could hardly be more urgent. 

A recent Cato Institute poll found that 62 percent of 18-29 year olds hold a favorable view of socialism and 34% a positive view of communism. That should alarm every parent and every American who cares about the future of our country. Young people did not arrive at these conclusions in a vacuum. For decades, critical theory, Marxist ideology and socialist-leaning teachings have worked their way through higher education and into the way history is presented to younger generations. 

Texas, and by extension, America’s, freedoms and future hangs in the balance without an educated populace. When organizations like the Texas and National Council of the Social Studies and American Historical Society (which have become radical leftist propaganda machines) are churning out classroom lessons and sharing resources for Marxists ideologues, we have a huge problem. But that’s exactly what’s happened.  

I’ve documented the NCSS pushing “Resources for Teachers” to organizations like Zinn Education Project who claims “the Constitution was written in secret by 55 wealthy white men to serve a tiny majority – men like themselves” and “clamp down on the rights of everyone else…. To quell the power of Black, Native and working-class white people agitating for justice.” 

Or NCSS pushing the Education for Liberation Network’s (named for Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire’s reading technique) “Featured Books” such as Teaching Palestine, Transgender Justice in Schools or Teaching for Black Lives. 

The NCSS pushes for Racial Literacy, “designed to subvert racism psychologically, interpersonally, and structurally. It is a process of learning to understand how race is a function of power in the United States and that race, while central, remains interdependent with other sociopolitical elements such as gender, class, sexuality, and geography.” 

Or the American Historical Association which pushes land acknowledgements and critical theories to undermine western culture.  

When students are taught primarily from kindergarten on about America’s mistakes and denied the contextual story of its founding principles, prosperity, sacrifices and global leadership, we should not be surprised when they grow into adults that lose faith in the country itself. 

Education shapes culture, and culture shapes the future. 

That is why this effort became about much more than revising a set of academic standards. It became a fight to reclaim the educational narrative and protect the constitutional republic itself and our values that have sustained America for 250 years. 

Governor Greg Abbott, members of the State Board of Education, parents, patriots and organizations including the Parent Empowerment Coalition came together around a shared conviction: Texas has an obligation to tell our children the truth about their unique and truly exceptional inheritance. 

We are patriots determined to restore truthful historical education of Texas, America, and the World.  

The work was demanding, and the political and cultural environment surrounding this rewrite could hardly have been more charged. One year ago this very week, the State Board of Education met to do what no other state in the nation has done by revolutionizing the curriculum structure to get rid of the failing and antiquated, fragmented history curriculum structure of the past with a new Comprehensive Chronological Social Studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills structure. 

During the SBOE meeting one year ago, Charlie Kirk was on a college campus in Utah debating students about the very history we were fighting to reclaim in Texas schools. The second “shot heard round the world” rang out and Kirk, a patriot sharing the true history and ideals that made America, was assassinated — a horrifying reminder of just how consequential the broader struggle over ideas, truth and America’s future has become. 

That very night, while speaking at an event to patriots about our work to restore greatness to Texas schools, I broke down in tears thinking of Kirk, who gave his life for the right to speak truth. No one watching the SBOE meeting the next day could deny the weight we all felt fighting the battle for truth that Charlie had just died fighting for.  

The first step in the battle for the Comprehensive Social Studies TEKS structure was won that week. Under Chairman Aaron Kinsey’s steadfast leadership, the State Board of Education approved what is the first classically inspired, comprehensive history curriculum of its kind in the nation. Instead of a fragmented approach that leaves students without a coherent understanding of how civilizations, ideas and events connect, Texas students will receive a rigorous structure grounded in historical context. 

They will learn not merely what happened, but why it mattered. 

The second battle has been playing out since January of 2026 and culminated today, September 4th.   

After multiple meetings throughout this year, fighting with patriots to push back against the radical ideologues, the leftist media and the critics of America, the SBOE has delivered a monumental victory for Texas. 

Texas students will now study the foundations of Western civilization, including the biblical influence on history, culture and structure, as well as the principles and people that shaped America’s founding, the ideals contained in our constitutional system and the extraordinary story of our nation that has expanded liberty, created unprecedented prosperity, and stands above other civilizations throughout the world. 

This is what patriotic public education should mean. This is how students learn to love our great nation. 

It does not mean pretending America has never made mistakes. It means refusing to teach those mistakes in isolation from the principles, achievements and sacrifices that define the larger American story and the arc of history. 

Our children deserve the entire story – the truth about American Exceptionalism and how Texas stands as its greatest embodiment. 

Governor Abbott, Chairman Kinsey, Social Studies Chair Audrey Young, the rest of the patriotic members of the SBOE, along with the patriots of Texas who persisted in this effort, deserve tremendous credit. For years, we have pushed against entrenched radical ideological opposition and a system hellbent on the critical analysis and destruction of our great nation. 

Texas has provided a model for the rest of the country. 

This victory matters far beyond one curriculum or one state. It is about whether future generations will understand the civilization and nation they are tasked with preserving for their posterity. 

If we want young Americans to defend freedom, they must first understand it. If we want them to protect our Constitution, they must know why it matters. If we want them to take pride in America, we must teach them the extraordinary history that made America possible. 

Protecting that history — and passing it faithfully to the next generation — is not merely an educational responsibility. It is our patriotic duty.