“Need to Know,” a new PBS current affairs program, aired an insightful piece Friday on the debate over social studies curriculum standards at the Texas State Board of Education. Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller, state board member Don McLeroy and Thomas Ratliff, who defeated McLeroy in the March Republican Primary, all have prominent places […]
Textbook Censorship
The Texas State Board of Education decides what every student in Texas public schools will learn from kindergarten through high school. The board does so by adopting curriculum standards and textbooks for public schools in the state.
For decades, far-right politicians on the State Board of Education and their extremist allies have taken advantage of this flawed system to dismiss the advice of experts and scholars. They have instead worked to inject their personal views into textbooks on everything from evolution and climate change to the history of slavery, civil rights, and separation of church and state.
Resources
- Report Reveals Serious Flaws in Social Studies Textbooks
- The State Board of Education: Dragging Texas Schools into the Culture Wars (2008 report)
- Evolution, Creationism & Public Schools: Surveying Texas Scientists (2008 report)
- Culture Wars and the Classroom (2010 report)
- Senate Bill 6: Changes in the Textbook Adoption Process (2011 report)
- Texas Science Curriculum Standards: Challenges (2012 report)
- Science Textbook Review (2013 report)
- Social Studies Textbook Review (2014 report)
When Politicians Set Curriculum Standards
Texans are getting a clear view of what happens when politicians, instead of teachers and scholars, make the decisions about what our children learn in their public school classrooms. The knee-jerk contempt that some members of the Texas State Board of Education have for true religious freedom, the expansion of rights and for general reform […]
It Gets Even Worse on Social Studies
State Board of Education member Don McLeroy, R-College Station, is circulating new changes he wants to make to proposed social studies curriuclum standards for Texas public schools. We didn’t think next week’s state board meeting on the standards could get any worse than what happened in March. But McLeroy’s proposed new changes have disabused us […]
Clergy Take Stand on Social Studies
The State Board of Education’s reckless revisions to proposed social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools have raised serious concerns among classroom teachers and scholars regarding pedagogical issues and historical accuracy. Issues involving religious freedom are also a growing concern, however. In March the board rejected a proposed standard that would have required high […]
‘Islamicize’ Our Schools?
One thing you can be sure of: when the religious right and its supporters talk about “religious freedom,” they’re not talking about freedom for people of all religions. They want government to pick and choose which people of faith will be more free than others. The far-right faction on the Texas State Board of Education […]
