The Ashley B. Cash Show
In this podcast, we will be exploring all aspects of education. We will discover where our system is successful and failing. Through conversations with teachers, chancellors, government officials and more, we will identify the problems and how to change them. It's time we flipped this education!
The Ashley B. Cash Show
All Eyes on Texas | Julie Pickren, SBOE District 7
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Texas is the economic powerhouse of the nation — and what happens here shapes the rest of the country, especially in education. In this episode of The Ashley B. Cash Show, we're pulling back the curtain on the battle being waged over your child's curriculum, and we brought in someone who has been fighting on the front lines for over a decade.
Julie Pickren served as an Alvin ISD Trustee from 2015–2021, where she helped build nine new schools while honoring the state compressed tax rate — saving taxpayers millions — and led the state in teacher pay. Today, she represents SBOE District 7, covering eleven counties across Southeast Texas, and she is sounding the alarm on what is quietly being pushed into Texas classrooms.
From budget surpluses fueling major publishing attention to powerful groups working to remove patriotism and founding documents from our kids' education, Julie breaks down exactly what is at stake and what parents can do about it. The June 2026 Texas State Board of Education Meeting is one every parent, educator, and concerned citizen needs to have on their radar.
Your voice matters. Send your comments and concerns directly to the Texas SBOE at sboesupport@sboe.texas.gov and make sure they hear from you.
Stay informed. Stay engaged. All eyes on Texas. 🇺🇸
About The Ashley B. Cash Show: The Ashley B. Cash Show features conversations with education leaders, policy experts, parents, teachers and reform advocates who are working to transform K-12 education. Host Ashley B. Cash brings her perspective as both a parent and business owner to explore systemic education issues and practical solutions for creating better outcomes for students, families, and communities.
About Ashley: As both a mother and business owner, Ashley brings a unique dual perspective to education reform advocacy, driven by her desire for better educational outcomes for future generations and informed by her firsthand experience with the skills gap facing employers today. Her passion for transforming K-12 education stems from witnessing the real-world consequences of educational failures and recognizing the critical need for a system that prepares students for diverse career pathways, not just college. Through this podcast, Ashley champions solutions including aptitude-based education tracks, expanded school choice, practical skills integration, and alternative career pathways that align with students' individual strengths and interests.
Follow @AshleyBCashOfficial on Instagram & @Ashley Bowes Cash on Facebook.
Visit www.AshleyBCashOfficial.com for more content and features.
Welcome back to the Ashley B. Cash Show. I'm Ashley Cash. And today I'm with Julie Pickering. She's from Pearlland, Texas. And from 2015 to 2021, she represented Alvin ISD as a trustee. During her tenure, the district built nine new schools while keeping taxes down, led the state in teacher pay, and poured more budget dollars directly into classrooms than any other school district can even come close to. Now she's representing the state board of education in district seven, covering 11 counties across Southeast Texas. And she brings a perspective rooted in faith, family, and the conviction that parents are a child's first and most important teacher. Julie, welcome to the show. Hi, Ashley. Thank you. Thank you. It's an honor to be here. Well, thank you so much for coming. And and I failed to uh mention that you have just received award from Eric Trump for the most Judeo-Christian policies passed in education across the country. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you. We had a wonderful dinner in conjunction with the Pacific Justice Institute in California just a few months ago. And it was an honor to receive that award.
SPEAKER_01Well, you are definitely on the front lines of fighting for education and making sure that the true story of America and Texas is told. And that means bringing in the fact that we were founded on Christian and Judeo-Christian values. And thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it will, it's the truth. And so, you know, whenever we um, whenever I put my hand on the Bible and took my oath of office, I promised to uphold and protect the U.S. Constitution. And so in order to protect our our liberties and our freedoms, um, it's exactly what the Texas Constitution says. The Texas Constitution says the whole purpose of a public education is for a general diffusion of knowledge to protect our freedoms and our liberties. So we have to teach the truth, you know, uh good, bad, and ugly, in order to preserve our liberties and our freedoms. And that's what I promised with my hand on the Bible to do.
SPEAKER_01Well, tell my viewers a little bit about like what you do on the SBOE and what the SBOE, and by that I mean State Board of Education, does, what its role in education is.
SPEAKER_00Um Texas State Board of Education is actually a very powerful education board because um numbers have changed and shifted over the last few years. And so um there's actually two running tracks that that is kind of promoting and um expanding the authority of the Texas State Board of Education. Number one, as the U.S. Department of Education goes away, the Texas State Board of Education becomes more powerful in Texas just because of less oversight from from the federal government, shifting all of those responsibilities and roles back to the states, which is where it where it belongs. There never should have been a United States Department of Education. This should always have been states' rights and a states issue. Um, if your viewers don't know, like in the state of Texas, your funding uh for your local schools, um, depending on what year we're in, but generally your funding for your public schools is uh funded by between 93 and 96 percent by your local property taxes by the state of Texas. And so the federal government plays a very small part in funding. But yet we saw during the Biden administration, the Obama administration, where they just wanted to, they wanted to act like they were kings. They wanted to say um, you know, that they they were um you had to follow everything that they said, you know, they're they were issuing out a lot of yay verilies, and Texas didn't take that very well. But we pushed back, but that's another story. But anyway, so as Department of Education goes away, the Texas State Board of Education becomes a lot more powerful. And then you have the other factor of that we now have or we're coming off coming up on eclipsing California for having the most school-aged children. So forever, California had the most school-aged children, pubs, you know, children in public education, but because of everybody fleeing California, in my humble opinion, looking for freedom, all right. I say Texas has a lot of California refugees. Uh they're fleeing California, especially parents are fleeing for uh fleeing California because the parental rights in California are just being trampled on. But anyway, so you have all these families leaving California and they're coming to Texas. So California's student population is decreasing, meanwhile, we are increasing. So Texas is about to eclipse California and the most um uh number of children in public education. And then you have the financial aspect of it. So, you know, these national publishers, whenever they write instructional materials for the states, you know, they it's business. They want to get paid. And right now, uh looking at certain figures, California appears to be about 270 billion, that's with the B billion dollars in debt. And, you know, Texas, Governor Abbott has created one of the finest economies in the history of the world. And so Texas, you know, every biennium we're coming in with a minimum of a$20 billion surplus. And then when you add to that, that the um that the Texas State Board of Education has oversight and authority over the Texas Permanent School Fund, which is also referred to as the textbook fund. You've heard that probably before. And that's a$60 billion, uh B billion dollar solvent fund. You know, that that fund is doing fantastic under the control of Texas State Board of Education. And we've seen huge gains in it over the last few years. But, anyways, so whenever uh whenever publishers are looking at who has the most children and who has the money to actually pay their contracts, well, now all eyes are on Texas. So what we decide is at the Texas State Board of Education on standards and instructional materials, what we decide now is what's printed for the entire country. Because the publishers, they aren't going to print one thing for Texas and another thing for the rest of the states. So this is why it makes Texas State Board of Education a national issue, because what we decide affects children from, you know, from Florida to Washington State, from New York down to Southern California and Alaska and Hawaii. What we decide, our decisions actually have a huge national impact.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm so glad that we here in Texas get to make that decision. Um, I'm really proud, as you said, of Governor Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Patrick and our speaker of the House, Dustin Burroughs, who happens to be from right here in Ludwig, Texas. Because they have been leading for several sessions now, really, really amazing conservative policy and doing great things with education policy. I mean, you know, last year, the 89th legislative session, um, they passed the school choice bill. So now parents get to choose where to send their kids. They did the$8.5 billion additional money from the general fund directly into education, 60% of which will go to increase teacher pay, which I think is fabulous. And those teachers deserve that. And, you know, they got prayer back in school, they got um the Ten Commandments back in school, they passed a parent bill of rights bill. So parents are back in charge of their kids for sure in Texas. And so I'm glad Texas is leading the way um on what's going in our textbooks. And I know that uh, let's see, I think it was April 6th through 10th. So just last week that you guys had the last State Board of Education meeting. And I know that it was raucous and there were tons of people testifying. And um, tell us a little bit about what happened last week.
SPEAKER_00Yes, Ashley, it was um, you know, I knew this, I knew that it was coming. We were um, we worked very hard to be very prepared for last week's meeting because um, if your viewers don't know, the Council of American and Islamic Relations uh care, which is now a foreign terrorist organization as designated by Governor Abbott and Governor DeSantis, and who the FBI says is the face of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. So you have uh from the federal level to the state level, you have all these people agreeing that they have terrorist terrorist affiliations and that they are a terrorist, a foreign terrorist organization. They started coming before our board last September to testify. And they have never, as long as I've been on this board, we have never seen them. So it was interesting to see when you literally have terrorists coming to testify before you on what they want in public education. But what they were so upset about, what what I guess what you would say triggered them to come and talk and testify, is that we are doing uh this full rewrite of kindergarten through 12th grade, social studies civics. So everything that touches social studies, kindergarten through 12th grade, um, government, economics, personal financial literacy, um, all things civics, um, US history, Texas history, world history, all the geography, everything is undergoing a full review and a full rewrite from the Texas State Board of Education. And we do this about every 13 to 15 years, these full rewrites in um different sectors of education. So it happens to be social studies right now. Well, whenever we were talking, whenever we were starting down this path, we needed to appoint content advisors, expert advisors to represent us. And so um how that works is that two members get together and appoint who they want to represent them. Well, Pastor Brandon Hall from Alito, Texas, and I uh we got together. And when you start talking about history, at least in my worldview and in Pastor Hall's worldview, one of the greatest American historians is David Barton from Wall Builders. Um, just an incredible man. Uh, owns, I think he has the largest single collection of American artifacts, of actual documents, presidential documents and artifacts of any um citizen in America. I mean, he is just a scholar. So uh Pastor Brandon Hall and I went ahead and we agreed and we sent a letter to the chairman saying that we wanted to appoint David Barton as our expert advisor to the state of Texas on this social studies rewrite. Well, when the left found out about it, um, they just they lost their minds. So they came and they held a press conference at the Texas State Board of Education. Um, James Tallerico spoke at it. Um, also the teacher unions, American Federation of Teachers, the Taxpayer Funded Lobbyist, Texas Freedom Network, that I like to call Texas Anti-Freedom Network, um, but Texas Freedom Network, just um uh the five Democrats on our State Board of Education. So there were a lot of people at this press conference. You had taxpayer-funded lobbyists, you had teacher unions, you had um uh Representative Talarico. I mean, it was a very large press conference. And the main thing that they were so upset about was that David Barton had been appointed to be an expert advisor. They wanted him removed immediately, and then they wanted Brandon and I somehow to be reprimanded for even appointing him. So I don't know what that looks like. It's not constitutional. But anyways, but they gave us at that press conference, they gave us a whole uh laundry list of things that they wanted removed from education and that they wanted added. So when you take a culmination of now they have come before the Texas State Board of Education four times to testify before us and the press conference, what they wanted removed is they wanted um founding documents removed. They wanted founding fathers removed, they wanted presidents removed, they wanted Thanksgiving removed, they specifically they wanted George Washington's Thanksgiving Day address and prayer removed, which by the way is a national archive archive document. That's a presidential speech, but they wanted that removed. They wanted everything about Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day removed. I mean, basically the fabric of patriotism they wanted removed. And but then what was interesting is what they want, what they wanted added. So um what they wanted added was they want um they want us to add that not Judeo-Christian values were the influence on the founding of America and Texas, but that Islam was the founding influence on the found on the foundation and building America in Texas. And how they wanted us to get there was they um they wanted us to teach that the slaves that were brought over from Africa, that America intentionally went to Africa to enslave the most educated people in the world. Okay, this I'm I'm gonna walk you down their rewrite of history, okay? So you understand where you're coming from. Okay, what their premise is that the Muslims that were in Africa were the most educated people in the world. They were the most educated in writing, in the alphabet, in astronomy, and mathematics, and algebra, and medicine. They were they were the creme de la creme as far as uh society throughout the world in education. And their premise is that America intentionally went to Africa to grab all of these highly educated Muslims to come back to America to be slaves, to make America great, that America was built on Muslim slavery and specifically the highly educated Muslim population slavery. And that's how our country was built. So that's what they want us to teach, and even down to that the Alamo, you know, they wanted us to teach that the Alamo was designed and built to honor Islam. So this is a complete rewrite of history. So that's the testimony that we've been sitting through and listening to. And so, and um, with that, they have brought a whole lot of testifiers with them. Prior to this last meeting last week, our meeting in January and February, we had 91 testifiers sign up to testify on this topic specifically. 89 were in support of what care's demands were. 89. Only two people got up to testify against it. And one of them, she was uh from Moms for Liberty, she was representing Moms for Liberty, and then the other lady was just testifying on herself as an individual. They were the only two people to testify against it. And so even we had Dr. Mince um from University of Texas Austin, who's a very highly respected professor at uh University of Texas Austin, even got up to testify that this was correct. He was testifying on behalf of what care wanted. And so, I mean, you can go back and review this. It's in the public meeting. I called Dr. Mince back up to the microphone, and I said, Dr. Mintz, I said, on my paperwork, you are signed up to testify on behalf of the University of Texas and Austin. I said, So when you have testified that the Alamo was designed and built to honor Islam, is that behalf on your of yourself or are you testifying on behalf of the University of Texas? And he says, he says, Well, the truth is the truth, and you see who I am signed up to testify on behalf of. I said, Well, my paperwork says University of Texas. So this is a very, this isn't just um, this isn't just one-off school of thought. This is this is um becoming a a um trend, a thought. I mean, it's it's taking on legs inside of academia. And so Texas has got to be the, we've got to be the band the vanguard in the old world to stop this because it's very different than uh critical race theory. Remember, we were talking about critical race theory back in, well, I started talking about like in 2015 because I saw it in my local school, uh, I saw it happening locally in school districts across Texas, but really at the state level, we started fighting it in 21-22. And so um at the Texas State Board of Education. But critical race theory is very different than what we're facing with this uh Sharia law and Islamification of education because critical race theory, it left, I'm gonna say, the foundations of America intact, right? It left presence intact, founding documents, constitution, declaration of independence, uh, Texas Constitution, Texas founding fathers. It left everything intact. What was going on with critical race theory is that it was going to indoctrinate our children to look at everything through a Marxist world lens, okay? So that was trained to shift our children from having a deep appreciation for America and a thankfulness for America in Texas to a resentment and a hatred for our founding documents because it was going to teach them to start looking at everything through a Marxist lens. So that was the fight with critical race theory was the indoctrination of changing our children's worldview. This is very different. This is a complete rewrite of US and Texas history. This isn't changing anybody's worldview or their paradigm. This is actually rewriting our history. So this is a different type of fight. So praise God, you know, things came together, had wonderful conversations. I was a speaker at CPAC in Dallas, and it gave me the opportunity to talk with a lot of leaders across the state and the country. And then um also uh just talking with friends of mine that that are, you know, uh leaders across the country and the state who care deeply about this subject and understand that education is a national security issue. It's not just about an education pop educate population, but it's actually about it's actually talking about what the Texas Constitution says. It's how you preserve your liberties and your freedoms is through your public education. And so just a lot of wonderful people came together to support us. And this time um we turned the tables on them on testifiers. We had almost 300 patriots show up um to support us and to testify at the last state board of education. And then thank God for Steve Bannon, because Steve Bannon, um uh, he live broadcasted our meeting. And so the people who were kind of squishy on a subject, you know, we have Republicans on our board who are supported by care, supported and endorsed by care. But whenever you literally have the world watching, when Steve Bannon agreed to live broadcast it, and you literally had patriots around the world and definitely America and Texas watching it, there was nowhere to hide. So it just, as I would say, it shut the mouths of the lions. And so that's what led to our great victory last week.
SPEAKER_01Because I know in past times, the State Board of Education has not voted to pass things like this that were really good for Texas school children because they've had that support from care and other more liberal organizations, right?
SPEAKER_00And so yes, we saw that last year when we passed the Native American Indian Studies Course, you know, the ethnic studies course for Native American Indians, which, you know, my husband and children are citizens of the Choctaw Nation. There's nothing in me against teaching, you know, Native American course. Um it's fine, it's great, it's part of who it's in Texas history. You know, the Comanche were the government government of Texas for a long time before, you know, the um the Mexicans came in and before Texas was around. I mean, we have to teach Native American to teach an abstract history. This course was a complete Marxist indoctrination. This course actually um and it's it's approved. It's Texas State Board of Education approval. We teach that George Washington was a terrorist and the Continental Army was a terrorist organization. But let me tell you how those votes go down. So, you know, we're we're in temporary, um, we're in a temporary meeting room right now because our uh meeting room is being remodeled. And so literally we have members who get up to to move to go vote, where they're technically still on the voting floor, but the cameras can't see them. And so they'll go vote so that nobody knows that they voted for teaching George Washington as a terrorist. And so uh that's how these bad votes are happening. So thank God, like I said, Steve Bannon Warroom agreed to live broadcast our meeting, so there was nowhere to hide, and it literally did shut the mouths of the lions.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank thank God for that. I mean, just by his grace, right? Yes, just by the hand of Providence. Yes, I'm so glad. And um, there are some really great things that are in the the social studies teaks, and I'm so glad that we got it passed. Um, I'm so glad that Texas, and what people need to understand is these TEAKS. Now explain what TEAKS are because it's an acronym, and I don't want to get it wrong.
SPEAKER_00It is, it stands for Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Basically, there are standards. Like these are common more common core is Obama's uh standards for the Obama uh designed for the nation.
SPEAKER_01TEAKS are Texas and those then will be used to produce the curriculum to teach our children, correct?
SPEAKER_00Yes. So what happens the full circle is that the Texas State Board of Education sets the standards. Then once we pass the standards, all the national publishers go to work to develop instructional materials that satisfy those standards. And then whenever you have assessment testing come around at your local school district level, what it's been STAR in the past, but now you know STAR is going away, there's a new standardized testing coming. The uh the standardized test that happens at the local school uh ensures that the local school districts are teaching Texas standards. It's the only the standard the assessment testing is the only tool that we have to ensure that children in Texas are learning our Texas standards because we've seen in the past school districts that will that have tried to break away from Texas standards and move to Obama's Common Core standards, but they they um they can't. They've tried to they so when you hear about these school districts that are that are really balking against STAR, and I'm not I'm not a proponent of STAR, there's better ways to measure assessment that are better for parents, but when you hear these school districts getting so loud about STAR, it's because they don't want to teach Texas standards. They want to teach Obama's Common Core.
SPEAKER_01Right. And um I'm I'm so grateful that we have set up a system in Texas where we get legislation and then it comes down to the Texas Education Association and hand in hand with the State Board of Education, we now have control over the information that our children are getting fed so that we're making sure that they get the true history, the good and the bad, but the true history, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. And it's been my honor, you know, I've been an expert advisor to the Texas House and the Texas Senate for several sessions now. So it's been my honor to actually either um help write, you know, my doctorates in and policy. So I write a whole lot of policy, actually, my doctorates in international policy. So it's my honor to write a lot of policy for Texas and the other states help governors out. But um, yeah, so I've been directly involved with 16 pieces. Of education legislation now in the great state of Texas, going back for probably about uh 14, 16 years now.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Thank you so much. Um, I started getting involved in policy about six years ago on a small scale, and um last year was really excited. HB 27, which is the bill that will now require a semester of personal financial literacy for every Texas high school student to graduate, was my idea. And I'm so excited. Congratulations, that's fantastic. Thank you. I'm so excited that it passed. I think it's so critical. It that actually came up because speak, well, he was Representative Burroughs at the time, but following the 88th legislative session, I went to him and I said, Can I ask you a question? I said, um, you know, we force every kid in Texas to take chemistry, biology, physics, algebra, trigonometry. Why are we not forcing them to have a course on personal financial literacy? I said, very few of those kids are ever going to use those heavy sciences, but every single one of them needs to know how to budget, how to pay their taxes, how to protect their credit. Like I said, the way that you make people dependent on the government is by not teaching them how to handle their money. And he was like, And he was like, Oh my gosh, Ashley, you're right. And so that is where HB27 was born.
SPEAKER_00Excellent. Excellent. You know, uh member Francis and I, we added entrepreneurship to that course. I'm so glad because I wanted that. Yes, because what a lot of people don't know is that small business is the backbone of the Texas economy. 98%, okay. 98% of all businesses in Texas are small business, and that's defined by between one and 100 employees. Okay. So that's full proprietorship to up to 100 employees. So only 2% of businesses in Texas have more than 100 employees. So small business is the backbone of our economy. So it was important to member Francis and I to add entrepreneurship to that course because if we're going to keep this uh roaring economy going, this fantastic economy going, kids have to know when they're graduating high school, they have to know the basics of owning your own business.
SPEAKER_01Yes. No, and I'm so excited that you got that added. I was trying to parse my way through the teaks on that. And um man, sometimes they just really like to make things complicated, don't they?
SPEAKER_00We're trying, we're doing our best. Uh teaks, you know, we've had a lot of complaints from teachers. I think we had a report that had over 5,000 teachers weigh in on it, uh a statewide report uh survey that was set out. And teachers, uh their number one complaint is that our teaks are too broad. As they say, or as we would say in education, you can drive an 18-wheeler through them. So what happens is whenever the standard gets to the classroom, the teacher's like, well, I don't even know what to teach. This teak is so generalized, I don't know what that what the students expected to learn. I don't know what mastery looks like of this skill or this knowledge. And I don't know how it's going to be assessed because it's so generalized, there it's too vague. And so we've listened to to those teachers, we listened to that survey. So that's one of the benefits that you have from these standards that we just adopted last week is that we would try to take the, we did our very best to take the vagueness out. But um that's gonna be the that's gonna be the fight in June at our June board meeting, is because there are organizations, there are national publishers who do not want to write for Texas standards. They want to write for common core. Okay. And there are um there are people, there are um associations, there are school board associations and taxpayer-funded lobbyist groups and teacher unions that want the standards very vague because they want to unhook the textbooks from our state standards because they're in favor of Obama's Common Core. So that's going to be the fight in June is to keep these TIKs um uh more specific, which is what our teachers have asked for and less generalized.
SPEAKER_01No, and I'm so glad that you are doing that because that has been the problem in the past, right? Because they were so general, people could pick their own curriculum that maybe didn't match up because they would they would make them be close enough to pass and yet not be not because they weren't specific, they weren't teaching them specific things. They could insert their own thoughts and ideas into the curriculum instead of it being specific.
SPEAKER_00And I can give you specific examples how this has really gone arise. So one of the largest school districts in Texas, uh, they decided that in ninth grade that the book that across the board, across all of their high schools, I believe they have nine high schools, eight high schools, and it's a very large school district, that across ninth grade, they were going to use Abram Kendi's the anti-racist as their novel that they were gonna teach six weeks from, right? They're gonna teach um all the all the standards and skills about reading a novel, writing, you know, writing, reading, writing, comprehension, understanding, um, uh uh uh quoting it back, all the skills that we require was gonna be completely centered around Ibrahim Kendi's the anti-racist, which if you don't know that book, it's um it's pure Marxism. It is a Marxist propaganda book that really um indoctrinates kids to hate America and to hate Texas. And then we saw Austin also in a school district, I believe, um, I believe it was Austin ISD that was uh teaching LGBTQ books and using LGBTQ uh uh transitioning books, room meeting books in elementary. And when the state questioned them, they came back and said, oh no, we're justified because we can crosswalk it to a teak. This satisfies the state's teaks. So that's that's what's been happening in education. So that's why we need to drill these teaks down and make them a lot more specific. Because I can promise you, it was never the intent of the state board of education for a little child in Austin, Texas to be groomed to transition from one gender to another using our standards, using our state teaks. So and it was never our intention to, at least for the majority of the board, it was never our intention to train children and the in the benefits and the um the advantages of communism and Marxism using Ibrahim's book in ninth grade. So that's why we need to get very specific on these on these teaks.
SPEAKER_01No, and thank you so much for doing that because I mean we've got to make sure that kids are getting the truth without all the indoctrination, right? Absolutely. And the more specific we are with the teaks, the better. And speaking of books, another thing that you guys went through this last meeting was the literacy, the the list of books that are approved for the K through 12 grade that they're going to be required in certain grades, right? And I know that was another big fight.
SPEAKER_00It was because this is the first time ever in the history of our state. This came out of legislation that was passed the last session where the legislature now mandates that we develop this book list. And um, what's interesting about this book list, so this is this is groundbreaking. I don't think it's ever even been done in America. I think this is the first time in the United States of America this has happened because um once our our TEAKS, like we've been talking about, okay, our Texas standards, once we pass them, they actually become law. And so they don't, it goes way beyond just a suggestion, this is what we think is good, right? It actually becomes law. And so whenever the legislature passes mandatory book lists, this book list actually becomes part of the TEAX. So this book list becomes law. And so it uh it's been very interesting to walk through this because the main opposition uh TEA. So how the pro let me walk you back a little bit through the process so people understand how we got here. So the way the law is written is that the Texas State Board of Education owns this list. It belongs to us because it's TEAKS and we own the TEAX, but it was written that the TEA would assist us in developing a list. Okay. And so we had a we had a discussion about this uh several months ago at the Texas State Board of Education, explaining to TEA what we were looking for in this list, what were our expectations on this list that they were going to develop? And of course, for me, I always fall back to the law because my personal opinion doesn't matter. What matters is the Texas Constitution, the U.S. Constitution, federal law, state law. That's what matters, and of course, the will of my 2.5 million constituents. That's what matters in my world. Julie Pickering's uh uh suggestions ideas, it's irrelevant. Okay. So my direction to Texas State Board of Education is I want a list that follows the law, that kindergarten through 12th grade, that you will uh you must by law use uh in in uh all tier one subjects, teach everything through a patriotic lens. Okay, that's the important American Patriotism Act and Education Act, okay? So it had to be patriotic. We had to have things that are patriotic. The other thing the law says is that you have to teach founding documents. So I expected founding documents in there. And the other thing is is uh one of the first pieces of legislation actually ever worked on was a law that said whenever teaching English language arts in Texas and social studies in Texas, you must use Old Testament and New Testament scripture as as a supplemental text. And so um you have to use that as supplemental text. So that was my direction to the uh TEA when they started first started curating this list is that you had to had to be patriotic, it had to include founding documents, and it had to use the Bible because that's what state law mandates. Okay. So um, so went went through that, and so TEA came back with a really great list. I'm telling you, they did a fantastic job. Not only do they do a fantastic job of curating the list according to that, according to state law, but also they showed us where they could directly walk walk each of the titles, each of the anchor text with all the supporting books directly to a teak. So it was just it was beautifully designed. Well, at that meeting where they introduced it, they were asking for more feedback. And so we had a discussion and then we moved on to actually making amendments to the list. And I'm telling you, my jaw dropped because one of our Republicans, his amended list removed the patriotism, removed uh uh all the presidents. So, I mean, from where we were going to read about presidents from George Washington to um Gerald Ford, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, where there were books about our great presidents throughout history, removed all the presidents. And so I even said in the meeting, it was uh member Will Hickman, I said, Member Hickman, I said, Do you realize that your list is removing what state law requires? You've removed all the presidents and you've removed patriotism. And he just said, Well, this is my recommendation, and that became his official amendment that was published on the Texas State Board of Education website. So we had uh his list was a full substitution. It wasn't just an amendment, it was a full substituted list. So we had to defeat that. Um, and again, this was offered by a Republican, which is always a little strange to me when the Republicans um forget that they run with that R behind their name.
SPEAKER_01Um, so anyways, so I had to And and just to clarify, the list had books per grade, right? Like it's my understanding that in an average school year, a child will read approximately five to six books. And so the list originally, the original list from the TEA was at least that deep per grade level.
SPEAKER_00Yes, actually, it's a little bit beyond that, though, Ashley. So the way the law is written, it says that we have to adopt a minimum of one book per grade. There's no maximum on this, okay? Yeah. So in education, the gold standard for literacy is called the Harvard Literacy Study. It was a very long-term, very expensive study. Um, it was completed about uh 10, 12 years ago. That that's what we use in in education as this is how you create a literate population. And the Harvard Literacy Study says that you need at minimum, okay, at minimum uh to develop a vocabulary that is between five and six thousand words, which is a minimum floor on literacy, okay? That to develop that vocabulary, you need at minimum 90 to 100 books per year. So we have the Harvard Literacy Study that tells us at least 90 books a year. We have the state law that says you have a minimum. So we came back with uh closer to the one, not closer to the 90, but definitely enough books to anchor in the teaks and the in the reading selections to get to make sure that the knowledge and skills that we expected students to master the teaks is anchored by what they're also reading, okay, by the addition of the books novels are reading, but also to create a vocabulary that will make a functionally literate adult because what we have seen in these in uh what's happening at our local level, and this isn't this it doesn't mean every school district in Texas, but I'm telling you, it's a whole lot. We have seen academic rigor drop so far, so far. So uh in elementary, honestly, I've even seen in uh school districts I represent in my area, I've seen books that are being read in the classroom in elementary that honestly 10 years ago we would have considered for pre-K. We would have considered for a two and a three-year-old or maybe a four-year-old. But yet we're seeing them in first grade and second grade. So rigor has dropped. So that's one of the goals of the Texas State Board of Education is to raise academic rigor. And so we've seen some pushback on that, but ultimately we defeated uh Member Hickman's uh substitute list, got back to a list that's closer to the to the Texas Education Agency recommended list, and it's a fantastic list. On that list is great works of Western civilization, founding documents, the Bible, uh virtue, you know, uh virtue. We don't talk about virtue uh very much anymore, but virtue was very important to founding fathers because the founding fathers clearly stated many times that your our constitution and our society is only as strong as a moral population. So, virtue, we've kind of left that behind, but we're bringing it back. So there's lots of excerpts from the book of virtue in the uh repeated in the grades, and then also uh the patriotism, the presidents are back and founding documents are back. So it's a fantastic list.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm so glad that we got it passed. And last week when I spoke with Commissioner Mike Marath of the TEA, he imparted to me the importance of the list in addition to just literacy. But in the past, teachers could pick any book that they wanted, right? They didn't have a list. And yes, they could have picked something that would indoctrinate the kids, but a bigger problem with the testing was that because we didn't have a list, then when we went to testing, the testing was just excerpts that didn't match up with what kids might have read. And so if it was a kid's first time seeing this test, this whatever reading we had in the testing. And so that is also impacting scores. But by having a list, then we can take excerpts from that reading list to use in our testing that gives kids a better chance at at really comprehending and understanding and having better test scores as well.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that that is true. And then also we're seeing something new in the state of Texas with this with this robust economy. You know, in education, you know, education is really kind of tied to workforce. You can't really separate the two, okay? And so when you watch workforce trends, I mean, throughout history or, you know, modern history, we've always seen migration across the state associated with blue-collar jobs, right? Um, mechanics, farming, truck driving, you know, kind of the blue-collar works. We've always seen this migration across the state of people moving for better jobs. Well, now over the last few years, we have seen what we call white collar migration. So now you're seeing um college graduates, you know, doctors, attorneys that have now fallen to this, falling into this uh migration pattern where families with very educated parents are also now, you know, moving Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, um, read uh Rio Grande Valley, the RGV, West Texas. Now we're not uh now we're tracking, just like we've been tracking in the past, the blue-collar migration, we're seeing a lot of white-collar migration out across the state. And so we need to set these standards and set these standards with high academic rigor because we need consistency among the school districts. Because we hear that complaint a lot. We hear from from parents, you know, I was in this school district, my child was doing so well, they were thriving, they were excelling, and now I go to this school district and my child has become a discipline problem because the academic rigor is so low, the child is just bored to tears. And so now the child, the a child that was, you know, a great student and doing well and flourishing is now in a district where they are becoming a discipline problem. So, really uh one of the great aspects of this list with this mandatory reading list is that it will provide some consistency on academic rigor among all of our school districts across the state.
SPEAKER_01And I think that there's something that you've touched on that we need to go into more detail about. And that is the literacy rate. Like I regularly talk to people about how important the third grade um reading level is that in in the country, but in particular in the state of Texas, you know, the percentage of children who are reading at a third grade level at the end of third grade in Texas, 54% are not reading at the third grade level. And the importance of that number is because if you're not reading at a third grade level at the end of third grade, the statistical data is 80% of those children will either be on welfare or in our prison system. And that the Texas prison system uses that number to decide how many beds they're going to have in prison in the future. And we cannot keep leaving these children to suffer, right? We've got to make sure that they are reading. And now we're seeing in Texas that one-third of high school graduates are functionally illiterate, which means they cannot read to fill out a job application or to take care of themselves, to go fill out applications for any kind of government assistance or anything, let alone be able to have a good job that's going to help them provide for their family.
SPEAKER_00That's correct. And unfortunately, Ashley, yes, we call that in third grade, we call that the school to prison pipeline. That number directly correlates to your prison population on third grade literacy because third grade is the last year that we teach students how to read. From fourth grade on, it becomes reading to learn instead of learning to read. So if you have a child in the third grade that that leaves the third grade that is illiterate, it will take, it will take a miracle. It will take a teacher that that um that notices that, that will spend his or her on time trying to get that child to reading. It will take, it would take the hand of God to rescue that child out of a life of poverty if they make it past the third grade and they cannot read. And so we've seen that in several school districts. You know, you've seen the state of Texas uh taking over school districts right now. One of my school districts, I represent Beaumont ISD, is in the situation where the liter the illiteracy rate has been so high for so long in that area. Now we're seeing what's called generational illiteracy. So e the child, the children who are not receiving the education that they deserve, that the state is paying for, taxpayers are paying for, the child who's illiterate has no one to go home to to help them learn how to read. So the child does not have an education system that's teaching them how to read. The parents have now come out of that same system. So the parents, they're functional literate also. So there's no one at home to help the child. And so this um this is a huge problem because illiteracy, like you said, is directly tied to the prison rate, but it's not just the prison rate. You have to drill that down a little bit more. It's tied to your crime rate, right? There are crimes that are happening that are sending these people to prison. So your illiteracy rate is directly tied to your criminal rate, you're to the crimes in your community, and it's directly tied to uh entrepreneurship. If somebody's functionally literate, how are they gonna own their own business? Right. You're not you're you're gonna have a community where no one in the community owns the businesses, which we know is super important for small towns and communities to thrive. It's very important to have ownership that that lives in the community. So you don't have people who can own the right own the businesses of the town or the community. So this has a huge impact on economics, on um, on crime rates, on this on society as a whole, because well, and on our our welfare rates, right?
SPEAKER_01Because if you can't have a good job, I mean, I ran the numbers in Lubbock, Texas the other day on$20 an hour, and you cannot support a family on that, right? And that is way above our minimum wage. And so when you're functionally illiterate, you're pretty much only prepared for minimum wage to manual labor jobs, and that's that the that that's not sustainable for a family. And so therefore, people usually end up on some sort of government subsidies. So we are, in fact, through our education system, creating a welfare state, right?
SPEAKER_00Because minimum wage was never designed to be a living wage, minimum wage was designed to be something just to kind of get you through, right? That's why you to get you started. Yes, that's that's kind of your jump off point while you get a job in high school, you know what I mean? Or while you're in college. So uh that's why you see that people who actually use the minimum wage as a living wage, they have to have two, two full-time jobs, sometimes two and a half, right? Two full-time jobs and a part-time job to make it culminate into a what is a wage that to the you can live on. So um you're right. The uh getting getting kids to a point where they could even uh take a minimum wage job is not enough. They need an education or they need a skill.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So what what is next up for the SBOE and and for you yourself? Like what are what are the next battles that are coming and how can the the viewers help?
SPEAKER_00Well, June, we're going to need a lot of patriots and a lot of people to show up in June again because even though we had these great victories, you know, between Pastor Brandon Hall and I, we offered over 20 amendments to strengthen the social studies teams. I mean, golly, my amendments added uh great things, like we added um teaching about the Great Awakening and the Reformation and the adding the Gutenberg Bible and the impact of Gutenberg Bible on on the changing world history, and you know, adding the Pledge of Allegiance that to uh to display good citizenship, or to teach in elementary now to display good citizenship. You stand up, you face the flag, you put your hand over your heart to say the pledge of allegiance because it's an honor, it's an honor to be a United States citizen. It's a privilege, it's a privilege to be able to say that pledge. So now we're going to teach that. So just we added really wonderful things and into the social studies um teaks, but they're not done. Okay. So is second reading and final adoption on the social studies standards, the TEAKS, and it's second reading and final adoption on the book list, since the book list is also in the TEAKS, but it's a different agenda item because the book list lives in English. And of course, social studies is social studies. So um already we have um uh member Little, Member Ellis, and Member Hickman who are already publicly talking about that they want to sub, they wanna, they're gonna bring a lot of amendments to take social studies back to what was recommended in 21 and 22 by the uh taxpayer-funded lobbyist groups and the teacher unions. So we we have another, we'd have another fight on our hands. So as I like to say, we took the hill last week. In June, we're gonna have to defend the hill because uh they're gonna take another swipe at it. And again, these are three Republican members. So when you talk about the balance of the votes, it takes eight votes to win. Okay, majority, simple majority of the board, 15 members, eight votes wins. So you already have the five Democrats who are very upset with what we did last week because it doesn't align with what care wants, and it doesn't align with what the teacher unions and the taxpayer-funded lobbyists want. So if these three Republicans unite together to do what care is asking for and to do what the taxpayer-funded lobbyist groups are asking for, we could see a full rewrite of what we just accomplished this last week. We could see a full rewrite in June, because that would be eight votes. So we we need people to step up, speak up, and uh show up at the June meeting to make sure that we that we get this over the finish line.
SPEAKER_01And tell me, it was it was Hickman, Little.
SPEAKER_00Who have said that they've uh expressed their displeasure with the standards that we adopted and that we need to come back in June and and do substantive changes.
SPEAKER_01All right. So to all of the viewers out there, if you know anyone that lives in the districts of those three representatives, let's get them to call their representatives and let them know that they want them to pass the social studies teaks and the literacy list as as approved at the last meeting in April. Um so make sure to do that. But this goes to another topic that we need to discuss, which is how do school board members, state school board members get elected. They are elected, correct? We are. And we I know we have I believe it's five are elected. Is it every two years or every year?
SPEAKER_00We're we are all on a four-year cycle. Um, half of the board is on the governor's cycle and the other half of the board is on the presidential cycle. So we rotate every every uh two years on who's elected, but we serve four-year terms.
SPEAKER_01So I know there's an election coming up in November. I think there's at least one seat that is up for a runoff, possibly two. And then those school board members will be going to the general election in November. Um so make sure also if you know of a school, if your district is having a school board election in November, make sure that you are electing the right person to fill that seat so that we can keep making great positive just for our kids in Texas.
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's so critically important. Yes, and Ashley, you know I'm up for reelection right now, and um, I've drawn a pretty big target on my back because I've gone face to face, head-to-head, very publicly against care, against this terrorist organization. And so uh they have made it very clear their displeasure with my service and want me off of this board. So anyone that would um that would like to help me or help support me win my re-election, you can go to my website. It's very easy. It's julypicker.com, J-U-L-I-E-P-I-C-K-R-N, Juliepikron.com, julypicker.com. But um uh first and foremost is pray for me. Prayer is the most important thing you can do. So pray for me, uh, visit the website, and um I appreciate everything that you're doing.
SPEAKER_01And how can people check what is happening at the state board of education meetings? When are the meetings? How can they find out when the meetings are coming? You mentioned the June meeting. Do you know the exact dates? I do.
SPEAKER_00Um, that's going to be that first full week of June, the ninth, the ninth, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 5th through 12th.
SPEAKER_01So also, viewers, let's make sure that we're getting people there who are in support of approving these social studies and this literacy list. Um, and what is the website to follow what you guys are looking at and what the information is that's coming up.
SPEAKER_00Uh, if you go to the Texas State Board of Education website, you can just Google it, Texas State Board of Education and our agenda is there. Also, what is there is our archive meetings. So you can actually go and watch the videos from our meetings. You can see what are the members saying, what are they voting, what are their amendments. It's very interesting because um uh it's just it's very interesting. It can make for late night entertainment, you know, to before you go to sleep if you like, especially this last meeting. You know, uh, I think uh over the four days I I was calculating, I believe we were in session 65 hours over four days. So there was a lot going on. But yes, you can go to the Texas State Board of Education website, you can look at, you can read the bios of our members, who we are, what districts we represent, look at the maps. If you're not sure there's actually maps associated with our name, so you can see where you live and identify where you're who is your member, and then um see our past agendas, our agendas coming up, our meeting dates, and our archive meetings. And you can look at our committees because we just like the legislature, we have standing committees, and our standing committees have uh uh Texas constitutionally given authority and duties. And so you can look at what are the what are the what are the committees, what do they do, because the public is always welcome to come and testify before our committees.
SPEAKER_01And speaking of testifying, I know that several ladies from here in Lubbock, Texas, drove down to Austin to testify um at the April meeting specifically about the social studies teeks, and um so grateful to them. But it takes, it takes people stepping outside their comfort zone and going and appearing because the other side, the people from care and whatever, they're coming forth, they're willing to testify. We've got to get people that believe in our Christian values and who want the truth of Texas history and U.S. history um taught to our children to be uncomfortable and go testify, to be there in support of these things. And so um I'm so grateful um to all the people across Texas who are doing that. But we've got to make sure that we are taking an active role in that.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So uh the first thing I'm gonna say is pray for us. Like I said, that's the most important thing. The next thing you can do is email us. You know, you can you can email the board in entirety. If you go to SB, if you email SBOE support at sboe.texas.gov, you can send your comments or your questions there and they'll distribute it to all 15 members of the board. So send your contact us, email us, and then also please, if you can, show up in Austin because that's huge. Um, that that the number of people that showed up and spoke at our last meeting is what swung the pendulum to stop the Islamification of education in Texas. If it would have turned out the other way that, you know, uh 89 to 2, how it was in our in our pre two meetings ago, we would not have been able to deliver this great victory. Just we just wouldn't have had the public support because when whoever shows up and testifies, that is the loudest voice. Literally, that's the loudest voice in the room.
SPEAKER_01And when can they start to sign up to testify? Because I know there is a cutoff date. You have to have signed up before the meeting starts. Um, but but when does it when does the sign-up start? How how many how much in anticipation of the meeting?
SPEAKER_00So signing up to speak starts the week before our state board of education meeting. So that Monday before our meeting, the week before, you can start signing up and the cutoff is Friday at 5 p.m. So anywhere from Monday morning to Friday at 5 p.m., you can sign up to speak. And whenever you sign up, it's gonna ask you which day do you want to sign up for and which agenda item because the testimony has to be specific to an agenda item. So before you sign up, just take a look at our board agenda and pick out which item do you want to testify on? And so whenever you go to sign up, it's gonna ask, you know, it's gonna ask you some questions and then like your name and what have you. And um, and do you represent an organization or are you testifying on behalf of yourself? And then also you have three options. You can testify for something, against something, or just comment on. A lot of people you uh like to just select the comment on so that their testimony isn't bound one way or another, because once you select that you're testifying for something or against something, then you're kind of bound to that because you've registered with us within the within those guardrails. So a lot of people like to say comment on because they don't know how the discussion's gonna go once we actually get into the meeting. So that's another little tidbit I can pass on to your viewers. But yes, sign up the week before and uh we'll see you in Austin in June.
SPEAKER_01And ladies and gentlemen, it is so critically important that we take an even more active role in our education and in appearing before the state board of education to make sure that the things we want our children being taught in Texas are what are actually getting taught in Texas. And so, Julie, thank you so much for coming on and for telling us what's going on. I hope that you'll come back. I know that you have regular meetings, big quarterly meetings. And um I hope that you'll come back and let us know what's going on and what's upcoming at the State Board of Education meetings so that we can continue to support you. Thank you, Ashley.
SPEAKER_00I mean, this means the world because this is where the power is. Then no matter who is speaking or what's going on, the power is always with we the people. And it is very important that the Texas State Board of Education hears from we the people. So thank you for what you do, and thank you to all your listeners and and uh your viewers.
SPEAKER_01Well, I I look forward to having you back on. And we are all praying for you, and we are pushing for the truth in all things education and everything for the betterment of our children. So thank you again. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna sign off for today. Please join us next time as we discuss more ways to transform our K through 12 education system. We'll see you then.
