About the program
Bluebonnet Learning was approved by the State Board of Education from a proposal from the Texas Education Agency following the approval of House Bill 1605 during the 2023 88th legislative session. HB 1605 includes increased funding for approved instructional materials, according to the TEA. Bluebonnet Learning material had garnered some criticism and concerns from parents and educators across the state in 2024 since it includes frequent references to Christianity and the Bible in the materials, as previously reported by Community Impact.
SBOE District 8 President Audrey Young on Jan. 7 presented the English and language arts curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade to the CISD board. Young told the board the curriculum meets all state requirements and addressed the concerns from community members about the religious references, placing the material in a context of lifelong learning.
“In order for our students to know more information and to understand what [they are] reading as they grow as readers ... we have to rely on the vocabulary and the nuances and the information that we learned early on, in order to understand what we're still learning later on in life,” Young said.
The cost
Bluebonnet Learning products are free of charge to access online in their digital format; however, hard copy print materials are not free, according to the TEA website. During the discussion, Young stated the printed student version of an individual book costs $18 per student.
The TEA website states that districts can “leverage the new instructional materials funding in HB 1605 to help offset the cost of the hard-copy printed materials necessary for classroom instruction.”
What they’re saying
“Our teachers are back to having to pull from a variety of different locations and planning and all the different tools in the toolbox, whereas [the Bluebonnet] book, from what I understand, is somewhat that way back to a mobile package again,” board President Misty Odenweller said.
“It seems like, in my opinion, we're going back towards that ... curriculum, where we have something hard copy. Well, we can provide that to not only the student, but to the parent and teacher,” trustee Melissa Dungan said.
What’s next
District officials said they will continue to work on the process for adopting the curriculum, including gathering feedback from teachers, and will come back to the board for a vote in May.
