The State Board of Education begins hearing testimony, before a tentative vote this week on new social studies curriculum standards that will serve as the framework in Texas classrooms. But, as usual in votes before the conservative-led board, the wide-reaching guidelines are full of potential ideological flashpoints.
Early quibbles over how much prominence to give civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall, and the inclusion of Christmas seem to have been smoothed over in the draft now being considered. But board members are crafting dozens of amendments to be raised for consideration before the tentative vote, expected Thursday. The 15-member board won't adopt final standards until March.
The curriculum it chooses will be the guideposts for teaching history and social studies to some 4.8 million K-12 students for 10 years. The standards will be used to develop state tests and by textbook publishers who develop material for the nation based on Texas, one of the largest markets.
Texas, being one of the largest textbook printing states, sets the trends for the nationwide textbook market. A textbook that caters to the whims of fundies in Texas will probably be forced on the rest of our children at some point. I mean, hey, we could end up with a textbook like this.
Also, Undernews had a great write-up that goes into greater detail about the effect that educational decisions in Texas have on the rest of the nation.
