When the Texas State Board of Education approved controversial new social studies curriculum standards last year, far-right board members patted themselves on the back for requiring that students learn about the Constitution. Of course, Texas students were already required to do that. But state board members were simply trying to distract attention from the way […]
social studies
Spreading Anti-Muslim Hysteria
When it comes to public school textbooks, what happens in Texas clearly doesn’t stay in Texas. Last September the Texas State Board of Education passed a resolution attacking Islam and falsely claiming that social studies textbooks are anti-Christian and pro-Muslim. Now right-wing groups are threatening education officials in Florida while making essentially the same absurd […]
Report Authors Rip Far-Right Critics in Texas
The authors of a think tank’s report that slammed the new and heavily politicized social studies curriculum standards in Texas clearly aren’t going to suffer silently as right-wing critics hurl lies and distortions at their work. Those critics have been absurdly suggesting that, among other things, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a left-wing organization […]
The Growing Chorus
On Monday the editorial board at the San Antonio Express-News became the latest group to take a swing at the embattled SBOE, citing the Fordham Institute study that gave our new social studies standards a “D.” The Express-News doesn’t say anything much different than what the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Morning News said when […]
Listen Up, Houston
Our friends at the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University have asked us to extend an invitation to TFN members and supporters in the Houston-area to attend this event on Thursday: Educating for a “Christian America”? Bible Courses, Social Studies Standards and the Texas Controversy with Mark A. Chancey, Ph.D. Professor […]
