Already bogged down in controversies over the proposed adoption of an offensive and error-riddled Mexican-American studies textbook and a revision of the state’s language arts curriculum standards, State Board of Education members this week launched a fresh assault on the teaching of evolution in Texas public schools. In response, TFN President Kathy Miller delivered the […]
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)
Texas State Board of Education Must Reject This Error-Riddled, Offensive Textbook
On Tuesday the Texas Freedom Network joined a broad array of coalition partners at a rally to call on the State Board of Education to reject the error-riddled, deeply offensive Mexican American Heritage textbook submitted for adoption in Texas. TFN President Kathy Miller (speaking in the photo above) was one of the speakers at the rally just before the […]
Cynthia Dunbar’s Absurd Defense of Her Offensive Mexican-American Studies Textbook
Cynthia Dunbar is upset that scholars don’t like her deeply flawed and outrageously offensive Mexican American Heritage textbook, which the State Board of Education (SBOE) is considering for adoption for Texas public schools this year. So now the right-wing, former SBOE member (and current Donald Trump supporter) is offering a rather absurd defense of the text. […]
Proposed Texas Textbook’s Twisted Passages on Racism, Slavery and the Civil War
The Mexican American Heritage textbook submitted to the State Board of Education for adoption in Texas this year doesn’t just promote offensive racial stereotypes and distort the history of Mexican Americans. It also teaches some pretty twisted and politicized history about slavery, the Civil War and racism. […]
Dallas Megachurch Pastor and Prominent Trump Backer Launches Two-Week Screed Attacking Evolution
Robert Jeffress, the far-right pastor of a Dallas megachurch and a prominent supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, on Monday launched into a planned two-week attack on evolution — and he pointed to the Texas Freedom Network and battles over science at the Texas State Board of Education. […]