Monday, July 20, 2026

TODAY'S TOP NEWS - YESTERDAY'S BEST BLOG POSTS JULY 20, 2026

TODAY'S TOP NEWS - YESTERDAY'S BEST BLOG POSTS

JULY 20, 2026

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER

Here is the breakdown of the top news stories for July 20, 2026, separated strictly by category as requested.

🇺🇸 U.S. NEWS

Trump Administration Targets Endangered Species: The Trump administration has introduced updated, scaled-back rules for the Endangered Species Act, removing key protective frameworks to give more developmental freedom to regional resource extraction.
50th Anniversary of Viking 1 Celebrated: Space museums and organizations across the country are hosting major events today to commemorate the historic 50th anniversary of NASA's Viking 1 landing on Mars—the first time the U.S. successfully touched down on another planet.
Loggers Rally in Maine Open Seat: Former state Senate President Troy Jackson has locked in a decisive progressive lead to capture the Democratic primary nomination to replace Graham Platner, positioning him for a targeted Senate race against Republican incumbent Susan Collins.
JD Vance Relocation Sparks Local D.C. Gossip: Details surrounding Vice President-elect JD Vance's newly announced move to an old-money residential enclave just outside Washington, D.C., have drawn community complaints over impending motorcades and high-security noise disruptions.

🏛️ POLITICS

DHS Strategy Shifts on Foreign Labor Disputes: Facing widespread anxiety from corporate trade groups regarding loss of workforce, incoming Department of Homeland Security Chief Markwayne Mullin has launched a series of outreach meetings attempting to patch corporate ties amid spiking deportation arrests.
Supreme Court Partisanship Doubts Surge: A comprehensive new national poll reveals that nearly half of all surveyed Americans believe the Supreme Court actively bases its high-stakes constitutional rulings on political motivations rather than objective jurisprudence.
Trump Threatens Network TV Licenses: President Trump has intensifed a public campaign against major television broadcasting networks, calling directly for regulatory bodies to revoke the broadcast licenses of networks he claims deliver unfair coverage.
DOGE Operational Footprint Expands: Even as institutional frameworks for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) face restructuring hurdles, remnants of Elon Musk’s aggressive public sector cost-cutting campaign continue to aggressively ripple through multiple federal agencies.

🌐 WORLD AFFAIRS

U.S. Interventions Face New Tensions in Iraq and Jordan: U.S. Central Command confirmed a service member was killed in action in Iraq alongside newly recovered remains from a prior Iranian missile facility attack in Jordan, sparking fierce debate over extended combat rules.
European Rights Body Condemns FIFA Over Autocratic Bias: The head of the 46-nation Council of Europe issued a public letter condemning the integrity of the FIFA administration, criticizing the suspension of an official player ban following direct pressure from U.S. leadership.
Labour Party Leadership Demands "New Politics" in the U.K.: In his inaugural national speech as the newly selected leader of the Labour Party, Andy Burnham has called for an systemic overhaul of the United Kingdom's political structures.
Maritime Threats Loom Near Essential Chokepoints: International intelligence experts are sounding alarms over suspected Iranian naval build-ups targeting another critical commercial shipping lane, threatening global supply stability.

🍎 EDUCATION

Sonam Wangchuk Launches Educational Hunger Strike: Activist Sonam Wangchuk’s family announced that his high-profile indefinite fast will continue until major political figures provide an enforceable commitment to debate new education accountability bills in Parliament.
Massive Protests Target Education Ministries Over Leaks: Thousands of student advocates and public reform coalitions have gathered at Jantar Mantar to stage marches demanding the immediate resignation of national education ministers following cascading standardized test paper leaks.
How Generative AI is Rewiring Early Childhood Dynamics: A series of extensive educational studies released this week highlights the deep cognitive and developmental shifts taking place as interactive AI applications are rapidly woven into early childhood play and home learning.
Fraternity Leadership Institute Gathers 1,100 Members: The annual Kleberg Emerging Leaders Institute has kicked off, gathering over a thousand collegiate student leaders to establish peer networks focusing on modern scholarship ethics and administrative accountability.

📉 ECONOMY

White-Collar Panic Spreads as Automation Pressure Spikes: Economic analysts report deep existential panic spreading into corporate office settings as automated processing and aggressive organizational restructurings lead to sweeping white-collar layoffs.
Climate Change's Economic Footprint Escalates: A newly published comprehensive climate report details the accelerating financial strain of localized micro-crises, making the raw economic toll of severe weather anomalies impossible for institutional investors to ignore.
Corporate Leaders Push the Business Case for Climate Action: Corporate boards are shifting metrics to treat climate adaptation as a bottom-line necessity rather than a public relations expense, citing shifting market rewards for proactive resource updates.
Deportation Actions Shock Agricultural and Local Supply Sectors: The tightening enforcement of workplace immigration policies has triggered an unexpected labor supply shock across multiple regional commercial sectors, forcing business networks to scramble for replacement crews.

💻 TECHNOLOGY

Anthropic's Mass Advertising Blast Faces Backlash: Leading AI firm Anthropic is facing intense pushback from independent developers and tech ethicists over a massive new marketing push, sparking deeper arguments over the centralized ownership of next-gen consumer tools.
Mozilla Rallies Open-Source AI "Rebel Alliance": In a major bid to counter the dominance of closed, trillion-dollar tech conglomerates, Mozilla has launched an open-source initiative designed to decentralize algorithmic modeling and baseline source codes.
"World Models" Emerges as the Frontier of Generative AI: Technical engineers and research firms have shifting their core focus toward "world models"—AI systems built to simulate complex real-world physics and environmental variables with advanced predictive accuracy.
The Race for an Ownership Economy in AI Development: Venture firms and software creators are locked in a legislative debate over the creation of a decentralized "ownership economy," seeking new models to compensate creators whose proprietary content trains neural networks.

⚕️ HEALTH

Taco Bell Lettuce Linked to Parasite Outbreak: Federal health agencies have traced a fast-moving, multi-state outbreak of the Cyclospora parasite directly back to shredded lettuce distribution channels utilized by select Taco Bell locations.
Trump CDC Nominee Faces Intense Senate Grilling: The president's choose to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faced hours of hostile questioning from lawmakers focused on the nominee's personal stances regarding federal vaccine validation.
Blood Tests for Alzheimer's Show Major Breakthroughs: Medical researchers have announced highly optimistic trial results for new, low-cost blood diagnostics that detect early-stage Alzheimer's long before traditional cognitive decline symptoms manifest.
Online Gambling Stamped a Public Health Crisis: Public health workers have officially declared the unchecked growth of hyper-targeted online gambling platforms an active mental health emergency, prompting collective counter-campaigns.

⚽ SPORTS

Spain Silences Argentina to Win the 2026 World Cup: In a thrilling, dramatic extra-time finish at MetLife Stadium, Spanish forward Ferran Torres scored a sensational goal in the 106th minute to lift Spain to a 1-0 victory over 10-man Argentina, securing La Roja's second World Championship.
Trump Steals the Spotlight at the FIFA Final: President Donald Trump made a grand, highly publicized arrival aboard Marine One directly onto the stadium premises to watch the final alongside FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, before ultimately presenting the iconic trophy to the victorious Spanish squad.
European Rebellion Brews Against Infantino: Despite the roaring commercial success of the 39-day tournament, a core group of powerful European soccer federations are actively planning to force out FIFA President Gianni Infantino over his breach of political neutrality.
Balogun Selection Scandal Mars Trophy Ceremony: Football purists and European clubs are expressing deep outrage over a last-minute decision by a FIFA judge to lift a suspension on U.S. forward Folarin Balogun after high-level pressure from the White House, clouding the sport's rule-of-law framework.

Big Education Ape: , : PLANTS ITS FLAG IN https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/07/lone-star-state-lone-cross-white.html

Big Education Ape: TODAY'S TOP NEWS - YESTERDAY'S BEST BLOG POSTS JULY 19, 2026 https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/07/todays-top-news-yesterdays-best-blog_01268427776.html

Big Education Ape: LOOKING BACK: THE WEEK IN REVIEW 7-12-26 TO 7-18-26 https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/07/looking-back-week-in-review-7-12-26-to.html

Big Education Ape: MORNING NEWS UPDATE: JULY 19, 2026 https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2026/07/morning-news-update-july-19-2026.html

Curmudgucation ICYMI: Canadian Smokehouse Edition (7/19) https://curmudgucation.substack.com/p/icymi-canadian-smokehouse-edition

When a President Attacks the Vote, – Cloaking Inequity https://cloakinginequity.com/2026/07/19/when-a-president-attacks-the-vote-john-lewis-calls-us-to-good-trouble/

It Would Be Chaotic, But I Think “” Could Be A Fun Learning Game To Play With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007 https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Schools Matter: Understanding Felon’s Plan Is Step #1 to Stopping Him http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2026/07/understanding-felons-plan-is-step-1-to.html

Problems with - https://nancyebailey.com/2026/07/19/problems-with-civics-alliance-standards/

: Now would be a good time to remind everyone of these , because apparently some people still need the refresher https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2026/07/now-would-be-good-time-to-remind.html

Ed Notes Online: Unity Spends over $1.5 million to send over 700 Delegates to Control the -AFT Needs https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2026/07/unity-spends-over-15-million-to-send.html

The One About the – Tennessee Education Report https://tnedreport.com/2026/07/the-one-about-the-robot-teacher/

The Trump wants billions to "fight communism on our own shores." https://michaelklonsky.substack.com/p/the-communism-schism

glen brown: The at 5:12 a.m., but the Operator Radioed Something that Made No Sense... https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-thermal-drone-found-missing-3-year.html

TRUMP IN THE NEWS TODAY
REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER

Here are the top headlines involving President Donald Trump making news on July 20, 2026:

Media Pushback Over Broadcast License Threats

President Trump is facing strong pushback from media firms and legal commentators following threats to revoke the broadcast licenses of networks that anger him. The friction escalated after ABC and NBC decided not to air his recent televised speech. Free-speech advocates are criticizing the move, warning that linking federal licensing proceedings directly to a network's chosen news coverage sets a dangerous precedent.

Truth Social Launching Paid Financial Feed

Truth Social is rolling out a new paid API service designed to give Wall Street firms and investors "licensed, real-time access" to the president’s posts. Because individual posts from Trump's account frequently move financial markets, the parent company, Trump Media & Technology Group, plans to monetize the high-speed delivery of his statements to the trading community.

Tensions with Iran and the Middle East Crisis

The administration is navigating an increasingly volatile situation in the Middle East. Following an Iranian missile attack in Jordan and the death of a U.S. service member in Iraq, the U.S. military is teetering on the edge of all-out conflict with Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to an ASEAN ministerial summit in Manila, where regional hostilities and the crisis are expected to dominate global diplomatic talks.

Delayed Saudi Nuclear Agreement

The White House has reportedly delayed a proposed nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia. The stall comes amid sharp disagreements regarding the terms of uranium enrichment, slowing down the administration's broader geopolitical alignment strategies for the region.

Business Outreach Amid Immigration Crackdowns

Behind the scenes, the Trump administration’s immigration officials are attempting to smooth over relations with corporate leaders. Under the direction of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chief, Markwayne Mullin, officials met with trade groups who expressed severe concerns over losing their workforce to the administration's aggressive deportation enforcement campaigns.

World Cup Concludes

Following the conclusion of the 2026 World Cup—which saw Spain secure the title over Argentina in extra time—President Trump personally presented the World Cup trophy during the closing ceremony.

The soccer conquistadors: Why Spain’s World Cup has had an imperial flavor - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/19/soccer-conquistadors-spain-world-cup-2026-imperialism-01004243

Russia hits Ukraine with one of the largest ballistic barrages of the war – POLITICO https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-hits-kyiv-largest-ballistic-barrages-putin-war/

Choosing humanity in divided times | American Federation of Teachers https://www.aft.org/news/choosing-humanity-divided-times

Keeping higher education in focus in the 2026 midterms | American Federation of Teachers https://www.aft.org/news/keeping-higher-education-focus-2026-midterms

Parents Circle – Families Forum encourages people to listen with empathy | American Federation of Teachers https://www.aft.org/news/parents-circle-families-forum-encourages-people-listen-empathy

CTE builds essential life skills | American Federation of Teachers https://www.aft.org/news/cte-builds-essential-life-skills

Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Maine Senate Democratic nomination - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/19/troy-jackson-likely-maine-senate-nominee-platner-01004490

‘A better way to be relevant’: Greens embrace data center fight - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/19/a-better-way-to-be-relevant-greens-embrace-data-center-fight-01000250

War’s Escalation in Iran Is an Attack on Civilians’ Basic Needs – Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/07/wars-escalation-in-iran-is-an-attack-on-civilians-basic-needs/

Ships continue to move through Strait of Hormuz, Chris Wright says - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/19/chris-wright-strait-hormuz-iran-01004359

The Falklands, Johnny Infantino and an invisible man: A whirlwind review of the World Cup - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/19/fifa-world-cup-review-spain-champions-falklands-donald-trump-gianni-infantino-01004415

The ‘hopeless, bad people’ just won Donald Trump's World Cup - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/19/spain-world-cup-donald-trump-01004607

Spectrum awards grant to digital education initiative in Lexington https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/spectrum-awards-grant-to-digital-education-initiative-in-lexington/ar-AA27XZOz

India’s CJP Party Leads Protest March to Parliament After Exam Leaks - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/world/asia/india-protest-cjp-cockroach-jantar-mantar.html

Sunday, July 19, 2026

LONE STAR STATE, LONE CROSS: WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM PLANTS ITS FLAG IN TEXAS CLASSROOMS

The Alamo was always a myth. Now they want your kid's history book to be one too.

Let's be clear about something right from the jump: what is happening in Texas public schools right now is not a curriculum revision. It is not a pedagogical debate about phonics versus whole language, or whether to teach long division in third grade or fourth. What is happening in Texas — inside statehouses, school board chambers, and now federal courtrooms — is a deliberate, generational seizure of public education by an ideology that has a name: White Christian Nationalism.

And if you think it stops at the Rio Grande, you haven't been paying attention.

"It's Not a Religion, It's a History Lesson." Sure, Jan.

The Texas State Board of Education — that body of elected culture warriors whose most famous previous contribution to American intellectual life was briefly flirting with removing Thomas Jefferson from history standards because he coined the phrase "separation of church and state" — has now officially approved the most sweeping K-8 curriculum overhaul in decades.

The new "Bluebonnet Learning" standards don't merely suggest that the Bible has cultural relevance to Western literature. They mandate that six-year-olds receive instruction in Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, and Daniel and the Lion's Den. By middle school, students graduate to the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. And in one of the more breathtaking feats of historical cosplay you'll encounter in an academic document, the new social studies standards couple Moses directly with Harriet Tubman in Underground Railroad lessons.

Let that sink in. A story from the Book of Exodus — a text whose historicity remains deeply contested among professional archaeologists and biblical scholars — is now officially parallel curriculum to the documented, documented, documented history of American chattel slavery.

Meanwhile, the board quietly removed the explicit definition of segregation as "keeping people apart based on the color of their skin." Apparently, explaining what segregation was counts as divisive. Comparing it to a Bronze Age folk hero does not.

This Isn't Christianity. Christians Should Be the First to Say So.

Here's where it gets theologically interesting, and where the movement's camouflage starts to fray.

Christian Nationalism is not Christianity. This distinction matters enormously, and it is being made — loudly — by a growing chorus of Christian clergy, theologians, and congregants who find the whole project spiritually offensive.

The Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount — the actual text now mandated in Texas public schools — spent a notable amount of his ministry telling his followers not to make public spectacles of their religiosity. "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them." (Matthew 6:5, since we're doing scripture now.)

Christian Nationalism inverts this entirely. Its core theology isn't about personal salvation or communal care. It is a political ideology that asserts America was founded as a Christian nation, that its laws should privilege Christian values, and that cultural and governmental power should be wielded to maintain a specific — predominantly white, European, culturally conservative — vision of what America is.

The PRRI/Brookings data is unambiguous: Christian Nationalism correlates not with church attendance but with authoritarian cultural anxiety, hostility to demographic change, and nostalgia for a social hierarchy that served some Americans extremely well and others not at all.

This is why you can find Baptist ministers, Catholic bishops, mainline Protestant denominations, and evangelical scholars all issuing statements condemning Christian Nationalism as a corruption of their faith. When the National Association of Evangelicals tells you something is bad theology, maybe consider that something is bad theology.

SB 12: Dissolving the GSA While the Benediction Plays Over the PA

At the same legislative session that rewrote what Texas children will learn about Moses and Harriet Tubman, the Texas legislature also passed Senate Bill 12, which:

Bars public school staff from "assisting with social transitioning" — including honoring a student's requested name or pronouns
Bans student clubs "based on sexual orientation or gender identity" — effectively ordering the dissolution of every Gender and Sexuality Alliance in the state

The operational results of the 2025–2026 school year are exactly what you'd expect from a law written more to signal virtue than to govern coherently. Some districts went full deadname enforcement. Others retreated to calling everyone by last name. Some enterprising teachers found that "Mental Health Club" doesn't technically violate the statute. Texas students, displaying more constitutional creativity than their legislators, simply moved their Pride clubs to bookstores, parks, and — deliciously — supportive local churches.

In September 2025, the ACLU of Texas, individual trans students, and the Texas AFT filed suit. By February 2026, a federal judge had issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement in Houston ISD, Katy ISD, and Plano ISD, explicitly noting that the GSA ban collides directly with the federal Equal Access Act — a Reagan-era law, by the way, originally championed to protect Christian Bible study clubs in public schools.

The irony is almost too rich for a single paragraph.

The Lemon Is Dead. Long Live the History Test.

For fifty years, the constitutional guardrail against state-sponsored religion in public schools was the Lemon Test, born from the 1971 Supreme Court case Lemon v. Kurtzman. A school policy was constitutional only if it had a secular purpose, neither advanced nor inhibited religion, and didn't tangle government up with a specific faith.

Then came Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), in which the conservative SCOTUS supermajority — assembled with considerable care and political investment over several decades — formally buried the Lemon Test. The new standard: look at "historical practices and understandings."

Texas read the room immediately.

If you can argue that posting the Ten Commandments or reading the Bible reflects early American historical tradition — and the architects of Bluebonnet Learning have a whole team of lawyers paid to make exactly that argument — then suddenly Abington v. Schempp (1963's ban on devotional Bible reading in public schools) looks a lot more vulnerable than it did three years ago.

Texas has also been clever about coercion. Rather than mandating the Bible curriculum outright — which would be the constitutional equivalent of painting a target on your own back — they've dangled $40 per student annually for any district that voluntarily adopts it. That's not a mandate, their lawyers will tell you. That's a choice. A financially incentivized, structurally pressured choice that falls disproportionately on under-resourced districts who need every dollar they can get, but a choice.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals — the most conservative appellate court in the country, which sits between Texas and the Supreme Court like a constitutional toll booth — has already been signaling its sympathies. Dissenting judges have used words like "blatant" and "scripture imposed on children." The majority hasn't been listening.

The Texas Supreme Court, for its part, consists of nine elected Republican justices backed by Ken Paxton's office, which has the legal philosophy of a demolition crew given the blueprints to the Establishment Clause.

The Textbook Effect: What Happens in Texas Doesn't Stay in Texas

Here's the thing that should alarm education advocates in every state, including California: Texas is not doing this for Texas.

Because Texas purchases textbooks at a scale that makes publishers genuflect, curriculum standards adopted in Austin have historically shaped what gets printed for students from Anchorage to Tallahassee. Publishers don't write fifty separate versions of a fifth-grade social studies textbook. They write the Texas version, and then they sell it everywhere.

The Bluebonnet Learning overhaul doesn't take full effect until the 2030–2031 academic year, which means the lobbying, litigation, and legislative copying is already underway in other states right now. Conservative legislators in a dozen states have been watching the Texas playbook the way graduate students watch a dissertation defense: taking notes, identifying weaknesses, planning their own versions.

The civil rights organizations — Americans United for Separation of Church and State foremost among them — have filed legal challenges. But for the architects of this strategy, being sued is not a failure condition. Getting sued is the goal. The whole architecture is designed to produce a case — ideally several — that travels up through the 5th Circuit and lands in front of a Supreme Court that has already told the world it's done with the Lemon Test.

They want a definitive ruling. They want it to apply to all fifty states. And they have spent decades building the judicial infrastructure to get it.

The Bottom Line

What you are watching in Texas is not a school board having opinions about phonics. It is not parents exercising legitimate input into local curriculum. It is a coordinated ideological project to use state power — legislative, judicial, financial — to install a specific religious and cultural identity into the mandatory education of five million children, while simultaneously dismantling the legal, historical, and institutional guardrails that have prevented exactly this for half a century.

The Lone Star has always been a symbol of outsized Texas self-regard. But this particular flag — the lone cross planted in the schoolyard, the Moses-and-Tubman false equivalence in the social studies standard, the Pride club dissolved by legislative decree — this one isn't flying for Texas.

It's flying for all of us.

Whether the rest of us let it stay up is, at this point, the question.

Sources: Brookings Institution, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, PBS NewsHour, PRRI/Brookings Christian Nationalism Survey, Texas SBOE official records, ACLU of Texas v. Texas SB 12 filings, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022), Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), Abington School District v. Schempp (1963), Equal Access Act (1984).

Sources & Links: Lone Star State, Lone Cross

White Christian Nationalism — Defining the Ideology

PRRI / Brookings Christian Nationalism Survey — The most comprehensive national survey on Christian Nationalism, covering ideology, demographics, and its intersection with authoritarianism, anti-Black sentiment, and political violence.
🔗 https://prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/

Brookings Institution: "Understanding the Threat of White Christian Nationalism to American Democracy Today" — The February 2023 expert panel discussion releasing the PRRI/Brookings survey findings.
🔗 https://www.brookings.edu/events/understanding-the-threat-of-white-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-today/

Brookings: "White Nationalism Remains a Major Concern for Voters of Color" — Analysis of how white nationalism and Christian nationalism are merging ideologically, including replacement theory data.
🔗 https://www.brookings.edu/articles/white-nationalism-remains-major-concern-for-voters-of-color-and-appears-to-be-connected-ideologically-to-the-growing-christian-nationalism-movement/

Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs: "White Christian Nationalism: The Deep Story Behind the Capitol Insurrection"
🔗 https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/white-christian-nationalism-the-deep-story-behind-the-capitol-insurrection

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: White Christian Nationalism Overview
🔗 https://www.au.org/how-we-protect-religious-freedom/issues/white-christian-nationalism/

PBS NewsHour: "What Is Christian Nationalism and Why It Raises Concerns About Threats to Democracy"
🔗 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-is-christian-nationalism-and-why-it-raises-concerns-about-threats-to-democracy

Bluebonnet Learning — The Bible-Infused Curriculum

Texas Education Agency: Official Bluebonnet Learning Page — The state's own curriculum hub.
🔗 https://tea.texas.gov/curriculum-and-instruction/instructional-materials/bluebonnet-learning/bluebonnet-learning

Texas Tribune: "Texas SBOE Bible Christianity Curriculum" — The definitive reporting on the 8-7 SBOE approval vote in November 2024.
🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11/19/texas-sboe-bible-christianity-curriculum/

KERA News: "Texas Approves Bible-Infused Curriculum for Public Schools" — Detailed account of the board vote and public testimony.
🔗 https://www.keranews.org/education/2024-11-22/texas-state-board-education-sboe-approves-bible-story-curriculum-public-schools

KSAT San Antonio: "Which San Antonio Districts Are Adopting the State's Bible-Infused Bluebonnet Learning Curriculum" — Ground-level district-by-district rollout reporting.
🔗 https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/04/09/which-san-antonio-districts-are-adopting-the-states-bible-infused-bluebonnet-learning-curriculum/

ACLU of Texas / Americans United Joint Letter to Texas Superintendents Urging Rejection of Bluebonnet Curriculum
🔗 https://www.aclutx.org/press-releases/legal-organizations-urge-texas-superintendents-reject-religious-curriculum/

Americans United Statement: "Texas Board of Education's New Bible-Infused Mandatory Reading List Is Christian Nationalism" — AU's formal response to the June 2026 mandatory reading list vote.
🔗 https://www.au.org/the-latest/press/texas-bible-reading-list-mandatory/

Texas Public Radio: "Saving the Separation of Church and State in Texas" — Symposium coverage including Americans United CEO Rachel Laser.
🔗 https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2025-04-01/saving-the-separation-of-church-and-state-in-texas

Social Studies Curriculum Overhaul — Race, History & World Cultures

Texas Monthly: "The State Board of Education Is Rewriting Texas History. It Will Only Get More Extreme." — The most thorough analysis of the June 2026 SBOE social studies vote, including board member quote "G-O-D, G-O-P, and U-S-A."
🔗 https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-history-new-curricula-bible/

Community Impact: "Texas on Track to Scale Back World History, Diversity Lessons in Social Studies Classes" — Detailed reporting on the June 23, 2026 vote cutting slave revolt lessons and Jim Crow discussions.
🔗 https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/texas-legislature/2026/06/25/texas-moves-forward-with-state-centered-social-studies-curriculum-trimming-world-history-and-diversity-lessons

NBC DFW: "Texas Board of Education Social Studies Overhaul Draws Criticism"
🔗 https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-board-education-social-studies-overhaul/3990300/

Texas Tribune: "Texas State Board of Education Advisers Signal Push to the Right in Social Studies Overhaul" — Reporting on the ideological composition of the advisory panel.
🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/14/texas-sboe-social-studies-redesign-conservative-advisers/

The Hearty Soul: "Students Will Pay the Price as Texas Plans to Erase History in Textbooks" — Includes American Historical Association's formal public comment and the 2030-31 implementation timeline.
🔗 https://theheartysoul.com/texas-history-textbooks/

Senate Bill 12 — The LGBTQ+ & GSA Ban

Wikipedia: Texas Senate Bill 12 — Full legislative text summary, timeline, and key provisions.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Senate_Bill_12

Texas Freedom Network: "TFN Explains: Senate Bill 12" — Plain-language breakdown of what the law bans, including GSAs, pronoun use, and DEI programming.
🔗 https://tfn.org/sb-12-explained/

Texas Tribune: "Texas Public Schools 'Deadname' Kids Under New State Law" — On-the-ground reporting from the 2025-26 school year on how districts are enforcing the pronoun provisions.
🔗 https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/18/texas-trans-school-districts-high-school/

Dallas Weekly: "Texas Schools Face Fallout From Senate Bill 12" — Reporting from Booker T. Washington High School and the teacher quote "This is a hill I will die on."
🔗 https://dallasweekly.com/2025/09/sb12-texas-education-impact/

Texas AFT: "Texas Educators Join Lawsuit Against Discriminatory State Law, SB 12" — Texas AFT's announcement joining the litigation in September 2025.
🔗 https://www.texasaft.org/government/sbec/texas-educators-join-lawsuit-against-discriminatory-state-law-sb-12/

ACLU of Texas: GSA Network, et al. v. Morath, et al. — The official case page for the SB 12 lawsuit, including the February 20, 2026 preliminary injunction details.
🔗 https://www.aclutx.org/cases/gsa-v-morath/

ACLU of Texas Press Release: "Federal Court Halts Enforcement of Key Provisions of Law Censoring Identity and Inclusion in K-12 Schools" — Official statement on the February 20, 2026 preliminary injunction.
🔗 https://www.aclutx.org/press-releases/federal-court-halts-enforcement-of-key-provisions-of-law-censoring-identity-and-inclusion-in-k-12-schools-in-three-texas-school-districts/

Houston Public Media: "Three School Districts Temporarily Blocked From Complying With Key Parts of Texas' DEI Ban"
🔗 https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/education/2026/02/23/544093/texas-aclu-k-12-public-schools-dei-ban/

Church & State — The Legal Battlefield

Supreme Court: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) — Full Opinion
🔗 https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf

Justia: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District Case Summary
🔗 https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/597/21-418

Library of Congress / Congress.gov: "Kennedy v. Bremerton School District: School Prayer and the Establishment Clause" — Accessible legal analysis of how Kennedy killed the Lemon Test.
🔗 https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB10780

First Amendment Encyclopedia (MTSU): Kennedy v. Bremerton School District
🔗 https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/kennedy-v-bremerton-school-district/

Americans United: Texas Ten Commandments Lawsuits — Tracks all three active Ten Commandments lawsuits in Texas, including the April 2026 5th Circuit en banc ruling.
🔗 https://www.au.org/how-we-protect-religious-freedom/legal-cases/cases/texas-ten-commandments-lawsuit/

ACLU: "Texas Families Sue to Block Law Requiring Ten Commandments in Every Public-School Classroom"
🔗 https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/texas-families-sue-to-block-law-requiring-ten-commandments-in-every-public-school-classroom

Americans United: "10 Wins From 2025 to Fuel the Fight for Church-State Separation in 2026"
🔗 https://www.au.org/the-latest/articles/wins-2025-inspiration/

Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, July 20, 2026