Critics say the curriculum overemphasizes Christianity. Texas school districts don’t have to use it but will receive $60 per student if they do.

The board was initially supposed to update the social studies curriculum by the end of the year.

The Educative Teacher Performance Assessment was designed to better prepare new teachers, but faced pushback from people who thought it would create barriers for people of color to enter the profession.

Two Republicans joined Democrats to veto the charter school application, including a Republican board member who lost reelection to a candidate endorsed by a PAC with financial ties to Heritage’s board chair.

The Republican-dominated, 15-member board determines what millions of public school students in the state are taught in classrooms.

The Texas State Board of Education sets curriculum standards for Texas public schools, and its makeup will change after Tuesday's election. But Republicans appeared poised to keep control of two other seats Texas Democrats wanted to flip this year. Currently, the 15-member education board seats 10 Republicans and five Democrats — with eight seats in play this year. Popp also picked up the support of Texas Values, a conservative statewide advocacy group, which recently urged the board to adopt abstinence-focused sex education. The board is weeks away from revising Texas' sex education policy, its first attempt to do so since 1997.