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The Texas State Board of Education is scheduled to take a final vote on the state's social studies curriculum standards on Friday.The Republican majority on the board says this is an opportunity to correct a liberal bias in teaching history others say the board is injecting politics into the classroom. In light of the controversy there’s a growing effort to reform the board.Texas Public Radio’s David Martin Davies reports.
May 18, 2010 · Some of the proposed changes that the State Board of Education is considering include challenging the principle of separation of church and state, downplaying landmark desegregation cases and elevating U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Opponents to the changes like Terri Burke of the Texas ACLU say the board is trying to rewrite history and promote a conservative political agenda in the classrooms.
She wants to change the law that would end the board’s “abuse of power.”
“There appears to be a very clear ideological bent to that and our school children deserve better,” Burke said.
State Representative Mike Villarreal agrees.
“The State Board of Education has unfortunately chosen to make decisions about the selection of content in our textbooks that are really driven by ideology and politics,” he said.
Villarreal a democrat from San Antonio sits on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education.
He has collected eighteen hundred names on a petition calling for changes to the law governing the education board.
“What we are attempting to do is to say, 'Enough is enough. We aren’t going to take this any longer. We want and we demand that our laws are changed,'” said Villarreal.
Villarreal says the board has seen a number of reforms over the years and among the 50 states only 11 elect their education board members. |
