Well what do you know:
The State Board of Education was deciding what courses will be necessary for new graduation requirements the Legislature passed last session. Those changes have been controversial; there’s been strong resistance by Latino advocacy groups, among others, to eliminating courses like Algebra II—generally seen as important college preparation—from basic diploma requirements. One provision of the law … adds a ‘community engagement’ aspect to school district evaluations. Adding Mexican-American studies to graduation requirements, [author Tony] Diaz told the board, would go a long way now that more than half of Texas’ students are Hispanic.
That this is in heavily Latino Texas isn’t the surprising bit. That it’s the state board of education is the shocking part.