LA Times: Outside Texas, alarm over textbook changes

[marmar]

Outside Texas, alarm over textbook changes
The state's Board of Education votes for conservative new social studies standards, raising concern that students nationwide could be forced to learn from the same books.

By Richard Fausset

March 22, 2010 | 5:47 p.m.


Reporting from Atlanta

When Texas' conservative-leaning Board of Education voted for new social studies standards this month, parents, teachers and lawmakers far beyond the Lone Star state -- particularly the liberal ones -- took notice.

With the changes, Texas' curriculum is likely to de-emphasize the concept in U.S. history of separating church and state, and the influence of Thomas Jefferson on 18th century world history. It would also cast a positive light on conservatives, such as Phyllis Schlafly and the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

Concerned observers have warned that those ideas could seep into textbooks throughout the country, because Texas is one of the nation's largest textbook buyers. In California last week, state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) announced that he was working out the details of legislation that would inoculate California students from the Texas version of history.

"While some Texas politicians may want to set their educational standards back 50 years, California should not be subject to their backward curriculum changes," he said.

But it is far from clear that non-Texans will be subjected to the proposed changes, once they are finalized, as expected, in May. Though none of the three major K-12 textbook publishers -- Pearson Education Inc., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and McGraw-Hill -- would comment for this article, observers of the $8-billion industry offered differing views on the likelihood that Texas could wield such influence beyond its borders -- in part because the textbook business, like American history itself, is a fluid affair influenced by commerce, culture, legislation and technology. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-texas-textbooks23-2010mar23,0,2135266.story

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[Joey Kidd]

4. Yeah,I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[frylock]

8. bank that

[Joey Kidd]

2. I wonder how regressive morons like these...

can have the green light to rewrite History.I bet that there's a lot of "intelligent design" nonsense crammed into biology books as well. :(

[Cirque du So-What]

3. In these days of modern times

when school districts aren't limited to physical textbooks containing whatever tripe the Texas Board of Education dishes up for public consumption, wouldn't it be prudent to search for alternatives? I realize that Texas has printing facilities large enough to handle needs nationwide, but this is the internet era. Why not circumvent the born-again Taliban and obtain online textbooks that aren't full of fucking lies cut from whole cloth?

[RKP5637]

6. +1000 !!! I strongly agree with you! It makes a lot of logical sense! n/t

[RKP5637]

5. What a conflicted and strange this country is becoming / has been... I find

this ridiculous and an interesting reflection on just how F'ed up this nation can be / is. Could Texas please just go ahead and secede... it would really make for a better country.

[depakid]

7. Time to enact federal standards that supercede the Texas fundies

[Roland99]

9. Anybody else worried about the fate of the teacher(s) that fail to follow the new texts

and, instead, choose to teach the FACTS and not OPINIONS?

[TexasObserver]

10. Now is the time for other states to REJECT books approved for Texas.

Take a firm stand and STOP the insanity of a bunch of right wing nuts in Texas determining texts for anyone except Texans.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Everythings bigger in Texas...

especially the Stupid

[RKP5637]

12. Is that ever true!!! n/t