Talking Points Memo reports on under-the-radar wingnuttery deep in the bowels of Texas:
The conservative bloc on the Texas State Board of Education won a string of victories Friday, obtaining approval for an amendment requiring high school U.S. history students to know about [anti-feminist] Phyllis Schlafly and the [’90s-era Republican] Contract with America as well as inserting a clause that aims to justify McCarthyism.
Why should you care what kind of education that ditto-heads want to force on their kids in the buckle of the Bible belt? Because as Washington Monthly recently reported, this madness will not be contained:
Battles over textbooks are nothing new, especially in Texas, where bitter skirmishes regularly erupt over everything from sex education to phonics and new math. But never before has the board’s right wing wielded so much power over the writing of the state’s standards. And when it comes to textbooks, what happens in Texas rarely stays in Texas. The reasons for this are economic: Texas is the nation’s second-largest textbook market and one of the few biggies where the state picks what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to the whims of local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. As a result, the Lone Star State has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers. As one senior industry executive told me, “Publishers will do whatever it takes to get on the Texas list.” … This means that [board member Don] McLeroy and his ultraconservative crew have unparalleled power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.
How dangerous is this? McLeroy, the damaged brains behind this movement, says that “Evolution is hooey,” and, “The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.” Read the whole thing, and get ready to start fighting these battles in Ohio all over again. — Frank Lewis
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2010.
This is an overblown story. Anything Texas does is neutered by California which wields the exact same powers form an ultra liberal agenda. Between the two states they are at a near tie only CA has more clout and more students. Throw in NY and a few other stats that always go with CA and they have the winning voice on most topics. There is more progressive and Dem leaning history in the school books than conservative, more promotion of semi-important women and minorities to push that agenda and a down playing of the contributions of while males has been steadily eroding over the last 30 years and it’s easy to see. So big deal once in a blue moon the Texan’s get a lucky break. Balance in education and open-mindedness requires all points of view being explored and discussed. Not just the ones we agree with or that fit in to our agendas and world views.
There is nothing wrong with conservative views in the textbooks so long as moderate and liberal views are also represented in balance. Hiding behind one side or the other makes polarizations and often the loudest voices on either side are the extremists with incorrect propagandized views of reality.
from the washington monthly article: “Until recently, Texas’s influence was balanced to some degree by the more-liberal pull of California, the nation’s largest textbook market. But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014.”
and from the TPM report: “Complaining that the standards were “rife with leftist political periods and events: the populists, the progressives, the New Deal, and the Great Society,” McLeroy offered this amendment: “Describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association.” It was approved. The standards do not include a progressive counterpart clause for the same period.”
do you still find this “overblown”?