The usually voluble Gov. Rick Perry has made essentially no public comment about how the far-right wing of the Texas State Board Education engineered a now nationally infamous rewrite of social studies curriculum standards in May. We believe the governor’s silence represents a fundamental failure of accountability to Texas parents. […]
State Board of Education
Texas SBOE vs. Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta doesn’t have a lot of fans at the Texas State Board of Education. In January the co-founder of United Farm Workers of America was stripped from a Grade 3 list of “historical and contemporary figures who have exemplified good citizenship.” Earlier today, the board again clashed over the inclusion of Huerta, with social […]
Poll: Texans Back Church-State Separation
We just released results of a statewide poll showing that a big majority of Texas likely voters believe separation of church and state is a key constitutional principle. In addition, an even larger majority believe teachers and scholars, not politicians, should make decisions about curriculum standards and textbooks in public schools. Both are key issues […]
Getting in Touch with ‘Their Inner Children’
The political jousting between Bill White and Rick Perry over the Texas State Board of Education‘s controversial revision of social studies curriculum standards is legitimate in the electoral arena. It’s certainly preferable to dragging political agendas into our children’s classrooms, which the state board has been doing during the curriculum revision. But what the Republican Party of Texas did […]
California Advances Anti-Texas Textbook Bill
The national backlash against the Texas State Board of Education‘s politicization of history and social studies curriculum standards is gathering steam. Yesterday a California Senate committee approved a bill requiring that education officials report to legislators and the state’s education secretary any changes influenced by the Texas standards when they review textbook content. California Sen. […]
