The new textbook standards being pursued by the Texas state board of education are still in motion, despite the rejection of some of the nuttier board members in recent elections. This was expected. The work that has gone on for so long has too much momentum to just be reversed. But, I read in today’s Dallas Morning News [1] that the conservatives on the board just rejected a proposal by the progressives that students be required to learn why the Bill of Rights prohibits a state religion. This is in contrast to conservative-backed requirements that students learn as much about the second amendment (right to bear arms) as the first, and why “taxes and regulations restrict private enterprise.”
As Jodi put it, it’s like they are really, REALLY trying to indoctrinate Texas children into the unproven conservative dogmas – quite the same charge that conservatives have been making about progressives. Both sides forget history and ignore data, to the detriment of all of us. And to all you non-Texans: ignore what happens in this state, and you put your owns kids’ educations in peril.
[1] http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/031210dnmetsboe.19ab856dd.html
