The so-called “expert” reviewers appointed by the Texas State Board of Education have turned over their written reviews of the first drafts of the new social studies curriculum standards. While we work through these reviews, let us know what you think about them, too. The reviews are here. The first drafts are here. Among the things […]
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)
Barbara Cargill Airs Her Hypocrisy
The flap over President Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday has exposed quite a bit of hypocrisy from the far right. Media Matters notes one big batch of hypocrisy from Texas State Board of Education member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands. “On NPR’s All Things Considered, host Noah Adams, introducing a report on President Obama’s September […]
TX Eagle Forum Compares President to Hitler
Texas Eagle Forum’s Cathie Adams shows once again how extreme and unhinged the far right has become. In an e-mail to far-right activists sent out late Saturday night, Ms. Adams — who is also a Republican National Committeewoman and has endorsed Gov. Rick Perry for re-election next year — compares President Obama to Adolf Hitler […]
Dunbar vs. Obama, Round 2
Oh, you just knew this wouldn’t take long, right? Texas State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, is wading into the “controversy” over President Obama giving a speech to students next week about the importance of staying in school and getting a good education. Of course, Ms. Dunbar has already charged that the president sympathizes […]
Hmmm…
Anything here sound familiar? A prominent religious leader is now attacking the study of social sciences, saying it “promotes doubts and uncertainty” and “secularism.” A new development in the growing debate over social studies curriculum standards in Texas public schools? Well, not exactly. The religious leader noted above is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the “supreme leader” of Iran’s theocratic […]
