The debate over the social studies curriculum standards ran so long that the State Board of Education has voted to postpone further debate on the standards until its March meeting. That means the final adoption of the standards will be pushed to May. We will keep you informed on developments. In the meantime, the Texas […]
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)
Today’s SBOE Social Studies Debate
The Texas State Board of Education is progressing slowly through early agenda items this morning. We anticipate that the board won’t get to the debate over proposed new social studies curriculum standards until after lunch. TFN Insider will resume live-blogging from the meeting once board members take up the social studies debate. […]
The Battle over History and Education
We have seen a series of stories in the last few days about the coming debate at the State Board of Education this week on proposed new social studies curriculum standards in Texas public schools. The Austin American-Statesman yesterday looked at efforts by conservative evangelicals to require that students learn that the United States was […]
‘Anti-Christian Bigotry’
So now FOX News anchor Brit Hume is saying that criticism of his call last Sunday for golfer Tiger Woods to dump Buddhism and convert to Christianity is just another form of “anti-Christian bigotry.” Hume told CNSNews.com yesterday: “It is certainly true in secular America today that the most controversial two words you can ever […]
Dodging a Bullet
Remember Allen Quist? He’s the fringe-right Minnesota politician who State Board of Education member Don McLeroy wanted to appoint to a panel of so-called “experts” helping revise social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools. Like other absurdly unqualified ideologues who succeeded in getting appointments to the “expert” panel, Quist didn’t just lack academic credentials […]
