Texas’ divisive bill limiting how students learn about current events and historic racism passed by Senate Texas Tribune Tags: Students leave the classroom to work in the computer lab at Mata Intermediate School. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. After hours of passionate debate about how Texas teachers can instruct school children about America’s history of subjugating people of color, the state Senate early Saturday morning advanced a new version of a controversial bill aimed at banning critical race theory in public and open-enrollment charter schools.