Thursday’s meeting of the State Board of Education‘s Committee on Instruction was, well, instructive. It also offered hope that elections in 2010 and this year might — just might — be moderating the board’s obsession with the “culture wars.” We told you on Tuesday that religious-righters were planning to use the committee meeting to attack […]
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 Religious-righters Rally the Troops about ‘Pro-Islamic,’ ‘Humanistic,’ ‘Marxist’ Curriculum
The Texas State Board of Education‘s last meeting of 2012 could be a case of, as Yogi Berra might say, déjà vu all over again. In 2010 the state board’s far-right faction rammed through approval of an outrageous resolution falsely claiming that history textbooks are “anti-Christian” and “pro-Muslim.” Besides the fact that the resolution was […]
Another Big Setback for the Far Right on Texas State Board of Education
Last night’s State Board of Education elections marked another big step toward an end to the culture wars in Texas public school classrooms. With the defeat of incumbent Charlie Garza, R-El Paso, the state board’s faction of far-right ideologues should be smaller next year than at any time since before the 2006 elections. Zooming out […]
‘The Revisionaries’ Held Over in Austin
“The Revisionaries,” the award-winning documentary about the textbook wars at the Texas State Board of Education, is getting another week-long run at Austin’s Violet Crown Cinema. If you didn’t get a chance to catch this must-see film last week, make the time to go between now and November 8. “The Revisionaries” is an unprecedented behind-the-scenes […]
Liz Lemon and That Whole Texas Board of Education Thing
Congratulations, SBOE! You’re so famous for all the wrong reasons that even Liz Lemon knows about you … sort of. Watch, from last night’s 30 Rock: […]
