The Texas House has approved legislation that would prohibit the state’s more than 1,200 school systems from buying instructional materials placed on a state-rejected list.
If the measure approved by the chamber last week were to become law, it would be the latest in a series of recent, sweeping changes legislators have made to curriculum adoption in the critical K-12 market.
Texas underwent an overhaul of its curriculum review and adoption process as a result of omnibus K-12 curriculum legislation approved by state lawmakers in 2023.
That new process — called Instructional Materials Review and Approval — is still evolving, but it has brought about major shifts in the state’s curriculum purchasing landscape.
For starters, Texas is now producing its own instructional materials and competing with publishers in several high-demand subject and grade areas. And the state is now offering monetary incentives for districts to purchase materials on the state-approved list.
Along with an approved list, Texas’ state board of education also maintains a rejected list, and a no-action list, which is designated for instructional materials submitted for review that are neither approved nor rejected.
House Bill 100 would forbid districts from buying off the state-rejected list using a pot of money from the state called the Instructional Materials and Technology Allotment. The bill does not affect purchases for products on the state’s no-action list.
The measure was approved by the Republican-controlled House last week by a vote of 104-42 with no floor debate. All 42 votes against the bill came from Democrats.
Since 2011, Texas districts have had local control to purchase materials that are not on the state board’s adoption list — even if they were officially rejected.
At a committee hearing earlier this month, state Rep. Terri Leo Wilson, a Republican from Galveston who authored HB 100, said the measure returns Texas to its pre-2011 status when it comes to using state money for rejected materials.
She said the state board of education undergoes a thorough process to determine materials suitable for classrooms.
“What is the purpose of this in-depth review if in the end districts are going to simply ignore the results of that process and buy off the rejected list?”
The lawmaker added that the bill “does not limit local control.”
“Districts will still have the freedom to select materials that meet community needs so long as those materials are not on the SBOE’s rejected list,” she said.
Some Democrats expressed reservations at the hearing.
“There’s a desire that I have and that I know our school districts have … [for] local control over instructional materials,” said state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat from Austin, and one of the 42 lawmakers who voted against the measure on the House floor.
Hinojosa said some urban school systems rely heavily on their own in-house curriculum experts, and they don’t want the state potentially interfering their instructional materials choices.
“We still want to be able to have that discretion,” she said.
What is the purpose of this in-depth review if in the end districts are going to simply ignore the results of that process and buy off the rejected list?
Texas State Rep. Terri Leo Wilson
The state board of education can reject instructional materials for a variety of reasons, Colin Dempsey, the Texas Education Agency’s division director of district operations, technology and sustainability supports, told a House committee at the hearing last month.
The reasons include: If the products don’t meet a strict 100-percent alignment to state standards; if state board members have concerns during quality or suitability reviews; or for non-compliance with a new parent portal requirement.
But state board of education members are “not bound to stating why they reject a material,” he said.
During Texas’ 2024 curriculum adoption cycle, three companies had their products placed on the rejected list (affecting a total of 15 of their curriculum products).
In the vast majority of cases last year — some 80 percent — materials were rejected for not meeting state-standard alignment requirements, or for reading materials using phonics submissions that needed to be corrected.
Publishers can appeal if their product is placed on the state-rejected list, or resubmit the materials for approval the following year under Texas’ new evergreen submissions process.
HB 100 now heads to the state Senate, which would have to approve it, before it would go to the governor’s desk.