The bill will require Texas high schools to offer African-American and Mexican-American history.

Austin, Texas – A new bill filed at Texas House would require high schools to offer African American and Mexican American history courses.

House Bill 45, introduced by State Representative Christian Morales (D-Houston), re-introduced her bill, which passed the House last session but stalled in the Senate.

Under the bill, students could choose African American History or Mexican-American History over World History or World Geography in order to receive social science credit by graduation.

Currently, only a few secondary schools offer courses as electives.

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“These courses have been proven to increase graduation rates, attract students and increase their likelihood of going to college,” Rep. Morales said. “The courses were unanimously approved by the Republican and Democratic members of the State Board of Education.”

Tony Diaz, who teaches a course in the history of Mexican Americans, says his students are eager to learn.

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“When I teach these courses, I have to tell them that the lesson is over, you have to go, because they really like it,” he said.

The legislators said that the next goal is also to develop a course in Asian American history.

“The Chinese Exclusion Act, the foreign land laws, the internment of the Japanese, it was all a historic turning point in the community for us. They can hardly be called footnotes on the pages of our textbooks,” said Rep. Jin Woo (D-Houston, Democrat). “We want to be more than footnotes.”

The bill went to the Republican-led education committee.

“It will be difficult as Florida Gov. DeSantis and Gov. Abbott are wary of such views or courses. It will be difficult for Democrats to push through them and find Republican support,” said SMU political science professor Cal Gillson.

Gilson says it all comes down to ideology.

“If ethnic studies create fissures and divisions in our society, this is the point of view of the Republicans. From a Democrat perspective, we could all get along better if we understood each other better. I expect there to be a dead end,” he said.

In the last session, the bill did have Republican sponsor Dan Huberty of Houston.

He led the 2019 public education reform but did not run for another term.