History takes a turn, far right...

[R13]

AUSTIN, Texas ? A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.

Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

"We have been about conservatism versus liberalism," said Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the standards. "We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be in the document, regardless as to whether or not it's appropriate."

Following three days of impassioned and acrimonious debate, the board gave preliminary approval to the new standards with a 10-5 party line vote. A final vote is expected in May, after a public comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.

Decisions by the board ? made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others ? can affect textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers' biggest clients.

Ultraconservatives wielded their power over hundreds of subjects this week, introducing and rejecting amendments on everything from the civil rights movement to global politics. Hostilities flared and prompted a walkout Thursday by one of the board's most prominent Democrats, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, who accused her colleagues of "whitewashing" curriculum standards.

By late Thursday night, three other Democrats seemed to sense their futility and left, leaving Republicans to easily push through amendments heralding "American exceptionalism" and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.

"Some board members themselves acknowledged this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just about every decision," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom.

Republican Terri Leo, a member of the powerful Christian conservative voting bloc, called the standards "world class" and "exceptional."

Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).

In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.

Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.

Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society."

Democrats did score a victory by deleting a portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."

Fort Worth Republican Pat Hardy, a longtime teacher, voted for the new standards, but said she wished the board could work with a more cooperative spirit.

"What we've done is we've taken a document that by nature is too long to begin with and then we've lengthened it some more," Hardy said, shortly after the vote. "Those long lists of names that we've put in there ... it's just too long.

"I just think we failed to keep that in mind, it's hard for teachers to get through it all."

Texas ed board vote reflects far-right influences - Yahoo! News

[CoeburnCane]

and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.

Reaganomics reigns supreme per Tejas, apparently. John Maynard Keynes laughs at them heartily. Just furthers my belief that Texans may be hard working, they may be at their core good people, but for the most part, they are they dumb as dogshit and willing to lean to any conservative teaching that's tossed out there. Reminds me of a lot of people I know in another area of the US not so far away from where any of us would be reading this from. *AHEM*

Has it come to this? Seriously? Are we going to start having conservatively based public schools and liberal based public schools? Partisan politics is going to ruin this nation, namely the extreme nutjobs on either side wanting their way.

[Biggin]

Reaganomics reigns supreme per Tejas, apparently. John Maynard Keynes laughs at them heartily. Just furthers my belief that Texans may be hard working, they may be at their core good people, but for the most part, they are they dumb as dogshit and willing to lean to any conservative teaching that's tossed out there. Reminds me of a lot of people I know in another area of the US not so far away from where any of us would be reading this from. *AHEM*

Has it come to this? Seriously? Are we going to start having conservatively based public schools and liberal based public schools? Partisan politics is going to ruin this nation, namely the extreme nutjobs on either side wanting their way.

my thoughts mirror yours.

we cant even put this political bullshit to a rest when it comes to educating our kids.

what has our country turned into?

[collegetrumpet2010]

Stop the freaking politics and give the kids an education.

[simple man]

Stop the freaking politics and give the kids an education.

Can't...if we don't get'em young they might vote the wrong way when they come of age.

[R13]

Sad thing is, this will effect kids all across the country, not just the nuts in Texas. Found another small article on it...this is unbelievable.


It's often been said that history is written by the victors. This was never more true than on March 12, when the Texas board of education voted 10-5 in favor of curriculum standards that would promote conservative takes on controversial issues in the pages of the state's textbooks. The changes, expected to win final approval in May, include an increased emphasis on and sympathetic treatment of such Republican touchstones as the National Rifle Association and the Moral Majority. They also tout the superiority of capitalism and the role of Christianity in the nation's founding. Even Thomas Jefferson's profile will be diminished; some board members were less than fond of his ideas about the separation of church and state.

This is not Texas' first such skirmish. Since the 1970s, the state has tried to drop books that were seen as too liberal or anti-Christian, to omit passages on the gay-rights movement and to tone down global-warming arguments. But the nation's battle over textbooks stretches back almost half a century earlier. In 1925, Tennessee's Butler Act (which was repealed in 1967) made it illegal to teach "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible." The Scopes "monkey trial" famously followed. In 1974, a clash erupted in Kanawha County, West Virginia, over the controversial writings of such authors as George Orwell, Arthur Miller and Allen Ginsberg. Opposition was so heated that some schools were firebombed with dynamite and Molotov cocktails.
(Comment on this story.)

As one of America's largest textbook buyers, the Longhorn State has a good deal of sway over what is peddled to schools nationwide. And while Napol?on may have maintained that "history is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon," getting Texans to come together on the past may prove to be their Waterloo.

Read more: Brief History: The Textbook Wars - TIME

[simple man]

Part of SWVA belongs in Texas. Perhaps they could start their own country again.

[R13]

Has anyone been following this? This gets worse and worse, it's downright racist and extremist stuff, beyond far-right...needs to be stopped.