The Texas Education Agency must spend up to $8.4 million in taxpayer money to correct thousands of errors in learning materials that drew national scrutiny for their inclusion of Bible stories.
Correcting Errors
The corrections include hundreds of copyright violations, formatting errors, and typos. The errors are unacceptable, and the vendor responsible for the errors has been fired, according to education agency spokesperson Jake Kobersky.
The cost amounts to just below $5 per student in the impacted schools, Kobersky said. Several board members described the 4,200 corrections as highly unusual. For comparison, four other publishers that submitted correction requests around the same time reported a combined 16 edits.
Background
The State Board of Education approved Bluebonnet for use in public schools in 2024. Board members have known about the errors since January. However, it was not clear until recently how much it would cost the state to fix.
Bluebonnet, an elementary and secondary school reading and math program that state leaders often tout as high-quality, comes with a $60 per-student incentive for districts that use it. As of last year, nearly 600 districts planned to use some of the materials.
The K-5 reading portion faces criticism for its use of Bible stories, while others express concerns about the lessons downplaying racism and slavery.
Original reporting: Texas Tribune (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
