Warning! Texas Board Of Education Is Meeting Again!

Once again, the schoolchildren of Texas (and possibly many other states) are in danger. That's because the Texas State Board of Education is meeting again this week. And the changes to the history curriculum they are considering (and hope to finalize this week) would rewrite American history to fit their own narrow right-wing fundamentalist views. Instead of teaching history as it really happened, these board members want it taught as they wish it had happened.

Sadly, this will not only affect children in Texas, but also in many other states. That is because Texas is so large and buys so many textbooks, that many publishers print those textbooks according to the standards set by the Texas Board of Education. Those same textbooks will then be sold to many smaller states, and will contain the same historical lies.

Let me remind you of some of the changes they have already tentatively approved:

* They have removed Thomas Jefferson from a list of Enlightenment writers whose writings encouraged democracy movements across the globe (and in fact, have even removed any mention of the Enlightenment).

* They have refused to let teachers mention that many of the Alamo's defenders were Hispanic, thereby making the war for Texas independence seem like a White versus Hispanic war -- a gross distortion of what really happened.

* They excluded an ethnically diverse list of Medal of Honor winners (because they don't want schoolchildren to know that American heroes come in all colors).

* They have replaced the term "slave trade" with the much more innocuous sounding "Atlantic triangular trade".

* They have included a section on the "contributions" of Confederate leaders.

* They are trying to rehabilitate the evil Joseph McCarthy by putting in information that says documents justify his tactics.

* They have put in a section about the conservative resurgence of the 80s and 90s, that seeks to make heroes of people like Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly.

* They have banned the use of the word "capitalism" and replaced it with the term "free enterprise".

* They defeated a proposal for a guideline to "examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others".

* They have declared that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is driven by islamic fundamentalism.

It would be bad enough if those were the only changes finalized by the Board this week, but some Board members want even more changes. Here are some other amendments that will be proposed this week:

*They want to add a clause asking students to "Contrast the Founder's intent relative to the wording of the First Amendments Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, with the popular term "Separation of church and state". (The very wording of this suggests the Founders did not want church and state separation.)

*They want students "to contrast the tone of muckrakers and reform leaders such as Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. Dubois versus the optimism of immigrants including Jean Pierre Godet as told in Thomas Kinkade's The Spirit of America." (The use of the word "muckraker" denigrates the contributions of these great American reformers.)

* They want students to "Evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty."

* They want students to "discuss alternatives regarding long term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, given the decreasing worker to retiree ratio." (An obvious attempt by these right-wingers to denigrate these social programs.)

Those are just the changes wanted by outgoing Board member Don McLeroy. There will probably be others by other right-wing fundie members of the Board. I expect all of the right-wing attempts to rewrite American and Texas history to be approved. The right-wing Republicans are currently in control of the Board (and may continue to be for some time).

Is it any wonder that a state legislator in California has introduced a bill in California that would require the California Board of Education "to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks"? Personally, I would encourage a lot of other states to pass a similar law to keep Texas textbooks out of their schools.

Texas seems to be a lost cause at this point. The State Board of Education has decided it is better to propagandize students than to teach them the truth. But there is still time to protect America's real history in other states. If enough states band together, they can demand publishers not include these changes in their textbooks.