Conservative Textbook Curriculum Passes Final Vote In Texas

suraj.sun sends in a followup to a story we've been following about the Texas Board of Education's efforts to put a more political spin on some of their state's textbooks. From the Dallas Morning News: "In a landmark move that will shape the future education of millions of Texas schoolchildren, the State Board of Education on Friday approved new curriculum standards for US history and other social studies courses that reflect a more conservative tone than in the past. Split along party lines, the board delivered a pair of 9-5 votes to adopt the new standards, which will dictate what is taught in all Texas schools and provide the basis for future textbooks and student achievement tests over the next decade. Texas standards often wind up being taught in other states because national publishers typically tailor their materials to Texas, one of the biggest textbook purchasers in the country. Approval came after the GOP-dominated board approved a new curriculum standard that would encourage high school students to question the legal doctrine of church-state separation — a sore point for social conservative groups who disagree with court decisions that have affirmed the doctrine, including the ban on school-sponsored prayer."

Comments

Re:When did progress...

[CosaNostra Pizza Inc]

"Under God" was not originally in the Pledge of Allegiance. Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge in 1892. The phrase "Under God" was added in 1954.

Re:Time to stop relying on Texas...

[PopeRatzo]

I can't see that the difference in education systems has helped you.

Actually the superior educational system in Germany has helped them a lot. They are the number one exporter of manufactured goods. And they're able to make all these superior manufactured goods despite the fact that they are among the most labor-friendly societies in the world. Labor unions in Germany are much stronger than here in the US and take a greater role in management than their US counterparts. A single union, the German Confederation of Trade Unions, organizes 25% of all German workers. Even though they only have open shops in Germany, union membership is higher than in the US.

Meanwhile, here in the US, we're destroying labor unions and hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs.

It seems that Germany's superior educational system (which is government-funded through university by the way) has helped them a lot. You'd think that as America falls further and further behind the rest of the world in areas such as health care, education, legalized marijuana that there would be more of an effort to learn something from other countries. Instead, some of us (Texas, for example) seem intent on making our society dumber.

The most important thing to note is that this decision by the Texas School Board will effect the textbooks in many other states. Yet Texas ranks 49th out of the 50 states in education. Instead of trying to raise the standards to match the states that are the most successful in education students, we're intent on lowering our standards to match the states that are the worst.