Texas ready for textbook showdown

[cal04]

Board to vote on curriculum changes some call ‘backward’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37220562/ns/us_news-life/

Is Texas on the verge of rewriting history, or just correcting it?

The answer depends on whom you listen to on the state’s Board of Education, which is poised to vote this week on new social-studies curriculum standards that could significantly shape what Texas children — and perhaps those outside the nation's second-largest state — are taught in the classroom.

Social conservatives on the 15-member Republican-dominated board are optimistic they will be able to push through curriculum changes that, according to board member and conservative Texas lawyer Cynthia Noland Dunbar, “promote patriotism.”

Among the recommendations facing a final vote: adding language saying the country's Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and including positive references to the Moral Majority, the National Rifle Association and the GOP’s Contract with America.

(snip)

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, says the Texas changes are historically inaccurate and dismissive of the contributions of minorities.

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

[Orrex]

1. Textbooks must be standardized at the Federal level

I'm tired of having the nation's curriculum set by seven assholes in Texas.

[marshall]

2. Each state needs to step up and police their own textbooks

They have let Texas carry their water for far too long.

[Orrex]

6. It seems that states lack the buying power to influence textbook manuracturers

What kind of demands can Rhode Island make opposite Texas? There are two few players in the game, and too much power allotted to them.

Federal standardization would eliminate this.

[marshall]

8. Other states need to figure out a way to take the lead

Texas fills the vacuum of power created by the other states inaction. As long as they sit back and let somebody else carry the water Texas will continue to wield the lion's share of the influence.

[Orrex]

11. Don't mistake me--I think you suggest a noble goal

However, practically speaking, it's difficult to see how it could be implemented absent Federal standards. Lower-population states like Connecticut or Wyoming simply lack the buying power to dictate terms to textbook manufacturers. In our society's benighted worship of the free market, Texas dollars buy more than Rhode Island dollars.

However, even in an ideal system whereby each state can buy the textbooks that it wants, Federal standards would still be a good idea. The notion that Arkansas differs from Oregon in matters of math or physics is simply a "states' rights" fantasy. Sure, there may be cultural differences from one state to the next, but not so great that we can't all use the same chemistry textbook.

And in any case, right now we're all using the standards set by seven assholes in Texas, as I decried upthread. I simply don't understand why this homogenization is acceptable (not by you, but in general) while Federal standards would be so objectionable.

[tigereye]

13. odd that Texas has all this textbook buying power, yet their test scores

and graduation rates are terrible, aren't they?

[Orrex]

25. Probably because of all of them no-good Mexicans.

I have a policy of not using the "sarcasm" smiley.

[marshall]

26. Texas has a weird dichotomy going on, that's for sure

We have one of the lowest failure to graduate rates, created by students who cannot pass the simple competency test at the end of their public education. But we also have one of the highest rates of students graduating from high school with significant amounts of college credit, by taking college credit classes in high school, AP tests, etc. We skew the bell curve by having inordinate numbers of students at both ends instead of the middle where they belong.

[harry_pothead]

27. Until the same religious right assholes get into the federal standardization committees

They certainly would have under a Bush Administration, and probably would have under an Obama one.

[redqueen]

29. CA has more students & buying power. They won't use these books.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15098236

I wonder why states don't request their versions.

[Orrex]

30. I wasn't aware of that.

I mean, I knew that CA has a bigger economy, of course, but the relative scholastic buying power hadn't occurred to me.


And you ask a great question--why use Texas' revisionist, Creationist crap-books?

[redqueen]

33. This "Texas decides for everyone" thing has been said so often...

I wonder how it got started.

[county worker]

38. They can refuse to buy the books. That's power.

[SoCalDem]

4. "..seven assholes in Texas.." I'm thinking mini-series

Starring?

[Orrex]

7. Phil Gramm

Tom Delay
Rick Perry
George W. Bush
John Cornyn

Plus any two Conservative assholes who homeschool their kids yet feel qualified to set public school standards.

[mzteris]

19. i know of lots of people who hs in Texas BECAUSE of

the conservative bs.

If you lived there with kids, you probably would, too. So let's not knock homeschoolers in general because some of them happen to be conservative fundies, 'k?

[Orrex]

24. With respect, I believe that you misunderstand my intent.

My point was that it strikes me as odd that the board of education--a public institution--is controlled by people whose children aren't in public school. In essence, they're making disastrously bad decisions on behalf of a system whose failure won't affect them, and they have little incentive to improve a system that they have explicitly rejected. In fact, since their goal is not the improvement of education but the furthering of a far-right evangelical agenda, they have no business being anywhere near the decision-making process.

Worse, since they effectively determine the course of public education for the whole country, it's preposterous that they should be making those decisions from outside the system.


It's not a commentary on home-schooling, which is a legitimate tradition wrongly mischaracterized because of anecdotal and non-representative examples. It is instead a commentary on how disastrously unqualified these particular assholes are.

[mzteris]

28. ooops - my mistake.

You're right, of course. This whole "school board" system - I think - is turning into a very bad idea. When you have good people - great, but too often, it's over-run by people who have religious or racist agendas... The ones with the money are the ones getting elected. The RW - especially the fundies - announced years ago that they were targeting School Boards in order to "make the schools" into something they wanted it to be.

Another reason I support alternative education programs. . . you don't like what the school's teaching - or how they're teaching - you have other options!

[SoCalDem]

3. Let Texas keep their own fairy tale school books..in TEXAS

They can print a "Brazillion" of them..just don't expect the rest of us to be buying them..

Facts are facts, and kids need the facts.

[marmar]

5. Agree....I feel bad for Texans, but they need to deal with their own wackos.....

..... Leave the rest of us out of it.

[WolverineDG]

16. This is what you get when you pull $ & resources out of a state

& let the GOP take over. Thanks for your "help."

dg

[marmar]

18. What did I pull out of Texas?

:wtf:

[WolverineDG]

21. The Dems abandoned Texas, taking our $ & resources

and leaving us to fend for ourselves. In the meantime, good Dems like you get to use us as scapegoats for all of your problems while your Dem politicos come down here & use us as their personal ATMs.

dg

[marmar]

22. Umm, I think you misinterpreted the post.....Just what am I scapegoating you for?

Or do you have a need to create imaginary enemies?

[TexasObserver]

9. It's ridiculous that California and other states defer to Texas' decisions on books.

It's a given that troglodytes control the Texas school book board. People in Texas should direct their anger at those in the state responsible for the action. But for states other than the state of Texas, you should each blame your own politicians and school systems. If your state is using books selected by the right wing board members in Texas, that's YOUR state's problem. Those who focus on the Texas selection process are missing the point entirely. Texas is not picking your books - your own state is.

I've encouraged people to stop their state from using the books the state of Texas selects. That is the solution, not complaining that Texas picks books that lack historical soundness. As long as the GOP control of state politics continues in Texas, the books will reflect that. It does not follow that California and other states should continue to abdicate their role to Texas' board.

[tigereye]

14. some of it is that the textbook manufacturers get the biggest orders from

Texas, right?

[TexasObserver]

31. Texas is the second largest state behind California.

Any state that buys the same textbooks as those picked by Texas should answer to its citizens.

Complaining that Texas is picking lousy textbooks is a pointless exercise for citizens of other states. Instead of wailing about what Texas is doing, such citizens should be making sure their state doesn't buy the same texts. It's really useless to complain about the texts chosen by Texas. I live in Texas, and if complaining about it helped, we'd have different texts. It comes down to votes.

If you have the votes to influence your state, you have the ability to alter decisions on the buying of textbooks. If your state has textbooks selected by Texas, that's your state's fault.

[WolverineDG]

17. Plus the whiners never connect the DNC abandonment of Texas

with the GOP takeover. This is what happens when you use a state as your personal ATM, but don't send any $ or resources to help it battle the GOP.

dg

[TexasObserver]

32. The GOP took over the state in 1994 and has held it since.

The Dubya era has passed, however.

We still have an uphill battle, but Democrats win in many venues.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

36. The judicial tide is turning in Houston.

The judges are now mostly Democratic, after a couple decades of nothing but Repubs at the trial level.
We also have an out of the closet lesbian mayor in Houston.

And Houston has not caved in since I was there last.

[unhappycamper]

10. You can thank those nutbags over at Liberty Institute for this

http://www.libertylegal.org/issues.php?category=7&article=54

Battle Over History Heats Up in Texas

SBOE to Adopt New Social Studies Standards

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) takes its final vote for the new social studies standards for public schools in its meetings on May 19-21 - guidelines that will impact students around the country from kindergarten to 12th grade for the next ten years.

Don't let the liberals ReWrite history.

Sign our petition of support for the SBOE at www.StopReWritingHistory.com and then help spread the word.

If you would like to speak at the hearings in Austin, please contact Jonathan Saenz at [e-mail].

These folks have some 'interesting ideas'.

[Javaman]

12. Textbooks are big business.

it will always be on the state level.

Because it is a cottage industry.

Federal standardization would be nice, but alas, due to various political influences, lobbying and massive amounts of donations, it will always remain at the level of the lowest common denominator.

These fights will continue.

[tigereye]

15. you would think that the change-over to electronic media/kindle, etc. used in

many school settings would offset the "hegemony" of textbook decision- makers, eh?

[mzteris]

20. Textbooks are obsolete -

Too much money spent on information that can be provided more accurately, more cheaply, and more timely.

[JBoy]

23. Can't wait for textbooks on iPad. Texas can download the "DumbApp".

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

34. brilliant. And when another generation of Americans can't read

you will wonder what happened.

Computers are NO substitute for reading books.

[dsn]

35. Here's the reason Texas controls your child's education

even if you don't live in Texas, or anywhere close to Texas.

Texas, as we know from reading this thread (among other things) is the second-largest market for textbooks in the United States. Texas is also the only state that requires any textbook sold in the state to be approved by the state. In California--the biggest market--or any of the other 48 states, school boards are allowed to choose the texts they like best without interference from the state board of education; Texas isn't that way.

Now...textbooks are extremely expensive to produce. They're almost always printed in four-color process, with a fifth color plate for the teacher's book so they can put in the answers. And they're hundreds of pages long. With the slim profit margins on textbooks, they can't afford to make one book for Texas and one for the rest of the world. They also can't afford to make a text Texas won't buy. So...they print one version, the Texas one.

iPads and Kindles would be the best way to deal with the problem--they could give one to each kid and shoot content localized to your state into it. But until we do...

[county worker]

39. States can refuse to buy the books. Enough states get together and they can over rule Texas.

They can use older books and add additional information from other sources to improve on the information. They could make a market bigger than Texas buy working together.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

37. Mark Twain had this figured out, of course.

"First God created idiots. That was for practice. Then he created school boards."

-- Samuel L. Clemens