The American Historical Association has sent a letter to members of the Texas House Committee on Higher Education opposing the engrossed version of Senate Bill 37 as it has been received in the House of Representatives. “This bill places politics before the educational needs of students, undermining the quality and integrity of general education requirements in Texas public colleges and universities.”
The House Committee on Higher Education will discuss SB 37 at their next public hearing at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 6. According to the committee clerk, state representatives are currently considering substantive revisions to the bill based on feedback from constituents and stakeholders.
If you live in Texas, it is crucial that you contact your state legislators as soon as possible and encourage them to oppose this troubling bill. It can be helpful to reference the opposition of the AHA and other professional associations to this bill. You should feel free to quote or paraphrase our observations. At this stage in the process, it is most important for legislators to hear personal narratives about the specific consequences of this bill directly from their constituents. This includes students, parents, faculty, staff, administrators, and other Texans invested in public higher education.
May 2, 2025
Texas House Committee on Higher Education
Austin, TX
Dear Committee Members,
The American Historical Association opposes the engrossed version of Senate Bill 37 as it has been received by the House. This bill places politics before the educational needs of students, undermining the quality and integrity of general education requirements in Texas public colleges and universities.
The AHA agrees that general education courses should “prepare students for civic and professional life” and “equip students for the workforce and in the betterment of society.” These are valuable goals for institutions of higher education. The specific provisions of SB 37, however, will interfere with and undermine the ability of Texas universities to deliver on each of these outcomes.
This legislation creates political litmus tests designed to overrule evidence-based practice and professional standards. SB 37’s prohibition on content that “require[s] a student to adopt a belief that any race, sex, or ethnicity or social, political, or religious belief is inherently superior” might, on its surface, seem to be laudable. Texas law protects against many forms of discrimination. But this clause fails to meet the foundational constitutional standard that prohibits restrictions on speech that are so vague as to be meaningless.
Why vague? The discipline of history evaluates claims, often involving social or political beliefs, based on the balance of available historical evidence. Is it wrong to teach students that historical interpretations grounded in evidence are superior to those with no factual basis? Will the state permit its required sequences of survey courses in US and Texas history to address instances—such as slavery, disfranchisement, and legal racism—in which previous generations embraced beliefs in inherent racial differences? As written, this law introduces chaos where there should be clarity.
The AHA also strongly opposes the exclusion of faculty from university governance and foundational decisions about the academic content of required courses. SB 37 holds up the principle of “shared governance” in one hand while consolidating power in governing boards with the other. In practice, this bill strips faculty of any meaningful input “on matters related to academic policy,” merely authorizing universities to seek “appropriate consultation” from the scholars and educators with professional expertise in these disciplines.
Will Texas students benefit from a general education curriculum created without meaningful input from faculty? We suspect not.
This legislation is unnecessary and duplicative. Texas universities already use tried-and-true procedures for reviewing and revising general education curricula. Vetted and approved by this legislature, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board maintains a statewide course catalog with common numbering, course descriptions, and student learning outcomes developed by faculty working groups from across the state.
SB 37 is wildly inefficient. The bill creates not one but two redundant new processes for curriculum review, neither of which includes instructional faculty or subject-matter experts in decisions about what knowledge and skills all Texas graduates need for success in the workforce and civic life. SB 37 creates an ad hoc advisory committee to “review the core curriculum requirements” and cut courses based on politicized guidelines. Made up primarily of political appointees, this body would be tasked with purging courses with little consideration for pedagogy, professional expertise, or the needs of students.
After this comprehensive curriculum review, each institution’s governing board would have the authority to appoint an advisory committee, which may include faculty (on an entirely discretionary basis) alongside community leaders and industry representatives, for its five-year general education reviews. Or it may include no one with insight and expertise required to teach these courses.
It is clear that some legislators harbor deep distrust of faculty. But public universities serve the needs of the communities you represent, your state, and future generations of Texans. Will these groups be better served if whichever party happens to control the legislature can decide what history we teach and who is qualified to teach it?
History and related fields provide discipline-specific and transferable skills that are consistently and broadly valued by employers. As a field of study, it operates by disciplinary standards that are well established and shared by historians regardless of their ideological or political viewpoints. The stakes are too high to take a gamble on changes of this scale just to punish faculty in certain disciplines.
With nearly 10,500 members, the AHA is the largest membership association of professional historians in the world. Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the Association provides leadership for the discipline, helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians, and promotes the imperative of historical thinking in public life.
SB 37 injects politics into decisions about general education curriculum and gives the strong impression that the state no longer cares to have world-class public universities. It prioritizes political control and ideological surveillance over educational quality, the employability of graduates, and individual liberty. Its passage would put the state’s economy at a competitive disadvantage, abruptly devaluing every public dollar invested in the state’s higher education institutions.