Texas Conservatives Seek Deeper Stamp on Textbooks

[depakid]

Source: NY Times

Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks.

The hearings are the latest round in a long-running cultural battle on the 15-member State Board of Education, a battle that could have profound consequences for the rest of the country, since Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks.

The board is expected to take a preliminary vote this week on a raft of changes to the state’s social studies curriculum proposed by the seven conservative Republicans on the board. A final vote will come in May.

Conservatives argue that the proposed curriculum, written by a panel of teachers, emphasizes the accomplishments of liberal politicians — like the New Deal and the Great Society — and gives less importance to efforts by conservatives like President Ronald Reagan to limit the size of government.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11texas.h...

[rpannier]

1. California and New York need to get together and compile the same curriculum

That would weaken Texas' influence

[Craftsman]

2. CA and NY do not have money for books or anything else

TX has over a $6 billion budget surplus.

The process is following the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules.

[blm]

13. Texas HAS that money because BushInc made sure OUR TAX DOLLARS were excessively funneled to Texas

throughout his dictatorship.

Dumbass Texans are just too stupid to understand WHY their state has the money other states don't. Texas got federal tax dollars disproportionate to their contributions. California and NY got less.

[Craftsman]

20. Wrong, oil and natural gas royalties

That and it has one of th most diverse economies there is:

Computer
Ag
energy
aerospace
biomed
engineering
chemicals
tourism

[blm]

22. That's only PART of the equation - Bush made SURE fed dollars were directed to Texas. YOUR defense

of Bush and Rick Perry is consistent....and consistently wrong.

Homeland Security and FEMA dollars were dropped on Texas by the tons.

The name Joe Allbaugh ring a bell?

Have you ever answered the question WHY you so consistently defend Bush and Perry and so consistently post RW attacks against Climate Change issues, Obama and other Dems?

[Craftsman]

23. TX has the 3rd largest port in the US, 2000 miles of international border

It would seem with just these 2 (and we are not even counting the international airports in Houston and Dallas)there is a greater need for home land security money then many other states. These are facts, and as for climate change I am not I am no longer convinced man has anything to do with it. And from the polls I read I am in a growing majority with that one. And for the record I am a union blue dog.

[blm]

25. you are 'no longer convinced man has anything to do with' climate change. Gee....

that would make a great thread. Why don't you try that out for a spin?

Sorry....not buying ANY of your post or claims.

And your excusing the tons of dollars disproportionately dropped more on Texas while California and NY received so much less is WEAK, WEAK, WEAK.

And your defense of Bush and Perry while attacking left issues and Dems continues.

[Craftsman]

29. I am not defending Gov Goodhair

But I am defending my state and the fact we hae money and we still have an economy that is moving.

[blm]

31. An energy state that soaks the rest of the country.

.

[Craftsman]

35. We sell needed items at fair market prices.

Don't like it build your own refinery.

[blm]

36. You forgot...you're exporting your TEXTBOOKS, too. Bushes NEED to control the history books

because secrecy and privilege for them and their fascist cronies is how they get away with their fascist agenda - keeping the dumbed down....dumbed down.

REALLY dumbed down...and ignorant.

[Craftsman]

37. Maybe so, but the point still remains the textbook companies cater to those who can pay

[Craftsman]

38. Dup

[mbperrin]

27. Actually, Texas is a net payer. Ranked 33rd in all.

LBJ brought in revenues.

[Mopar151]

3. Textbooks need to be held to a national standard

Completely supportable by fact. The whole idea that history can be broken down into soundbites for the "little ones", and "cleaned up" to some sort of patriotic ideal, is utter crap.
I can go on for DAYS about inaccuracy and distortion in the way history is taught - and our kids deserve better. They need to hear all the verses of "This Land is Your Land". They need to learn how to apply math and science, not just recite factoids. I'm not just talking about trigonometry and pond ecology, either - compound interest and the technology of textiles needs to be covered, too, in both scientific and historic context.

[donco6]

12. Ugh - no. That would only result in a "Wal-Mart" textbook.

It's one thing for math and science - but history needs to be left out of the hands of states like Texas. And if we move to a national standard, you KNOW they'll be a HUGE player.

And even with math and science, there are many ways to teach it - some more effective than others, and some more effective for certain students than others. Leave the variety alone.

[Mopar151]

19. I would beg to differ

There is more than 1 way to write to a standard, for 1 thing - and we (you know, the thinking, reading, figuring out kind of folks) shouldn't abandon the kids in Texass, or anywhere else, to the morons.

[donco6]

32. I've been through 2 sets of "standards" revisions.

We started way back in 1990 on our first set of statewide standards. Colorado is a local-control state, so the state really hasn't been a big player in curriculum. We got through the basics - readin', writin', rithmetic. But we STILL haven't figured out "social studies". It's not even tested on our state test at ANY level. And why is that? Because no one can agree. And to put that kind of decision making in the hands of Washington players - HELLLLL NOOOOO! No way, no chance. We'll have the Texas State Board-type of back and forth every time an administration changes.

[damyank913]

4. Textbooks! All they need is a bible.

[Roland99]

5. Yeah, cuz Raygun was SO great of a President.

Why, he only made secret deals with Iran who'd kidnapped people and taken over our embassy and then used money from that to fund death squads in Central America.

Why, he only tripled the national debt and put us in more debt than all previous U.S. Presidents COMBINED.

Why, he only raised taxes several times including instituting taxes on Social Security income.

[rasputin1952]

8. Not just taxing SS, but Unemployment as well...

[Roland99]

11. A true man of the people!

[rfranklin]

6. Ronald Reagan limiting government! There's a laugh...

Of course, in their minds, militarty boondoggles don't count. It's the social programs that they can't abide.

[rasputin1952]

7. Reagan didn't shrink government, it exploded under him...

if that was an "effort", it failed miserably, as do virtually every of the "conservative" ideals. The good citizens of TX need to oust these clowns and get some thinking people in those seats.

[HereSince1628]

9. Well the texts _should_ report Killer Trees and Ketchup as a Vegetable

There is a raft of stuff that came out of the Reagan administration that just shouldn't be lost from history.

[SkyDaddy7]

10. For once I would just like to see...

All these so-called "moderate Christians" that claim not to be brain dead idiots who deny evolution, global warming, discriminate against homosexuals & women, hate science, etc., come out against this nonsense on national TV...However, this will never happen because they are scared they will be labeled as not being Christian.

It is nonsense like this really bothers me about Americans...I wonder how many so-called moderate Christians have stopped and thought through what the ultimate end game is if these people get their way?

It makes me feel like this!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM360e3lCmc

[Newsjock]

14. Really, Texas, we're sick of this shit over here in America

It's clear: You don't want us, and we don't want you. Just leave already. No hard feelings.

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Texas and Alaska were the only two states that didn't participate in the panel for

national standards. They're also two that talk alot about pulling out of the USA. Do you think this is prep for them leaving?

[The Genealogist]

17. Theoretically, if Texas wants to leave, fine

However, I suspect that the Texas secession movement is largely an ultra-RW theocratic movement. In such movements, anyone on the left politically and religiously, and many who are just not extreme right-wing enough on the right politically and religiously, will suffer abominably unless they leave. I would also suspect that the government of such an independent country would be a Christo-Fascist one, and thus would be engaged in constant aggressive "holy war" against the surrounding US and Mexican states. It would also not surprise me that such a government would find plenty of countries in the Gulf of Mexico to attack and "set right."

As for Alaska, I don't know what an independent country made of that would look like. I don't know just what kind of right wing kooks are running that "Free Alaska" movement. But with Russia (I can see it from my house!) and Canada as neighbors, it doesn't seem there would be much kindness among surrounding states.

I suppose though that these secession movements will never remember the reality of the Civil War, of the bloodshed on both sides, the torn up families, the resources poured down the drain, until full-scale battles are raging and thousands are dying each day on the altar of Christo-Fascist ideological purity.

[BonnieJW]

16. Why any liberal would live in Texas is amazing.

It's like living in a distatorship.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. Getting away from the state -- nay, from the CITY -- where your life was built is hard as FUCK.

Believe me. Personal experience.

[hamsterjill]

24. Some of us were born here!

And remember a time when Texas was a democratic state. We are down here in the trenches working our asses off to try to regain that!

Can those of us doing that get just a LITTLE credit for it here on DU?

[tXr]

26. No. The mere mention of Texas here is a dog whistle for people to crawl from the woodwork and

get their 2 minutes' hate on.

Negative posts about Texas garner numerous replies and are kicked and rec'ed to the sky, while any good news which is reported quickly sinks with nary a trace.

People love to hate, and Texas is one of the primary foci for liberal hatred.

[Mopar151]

30. See post #19

We should'nt abandon any kid, anywhere in the country, to the theocrats and robber barons. What if some poor kid in Beaumont is gonna be the Tesla of wind power and smart grids?

[hamsterjill]

41. I appreciate your sensibility!

Your post is well written. And you're right.

It just gets a little "hurtful" sometimes around here, as many well understand because we're working HARD down here to salvage some semblance of what life should be.

We are trying HARD in Texas, but you gotta know we have our work cut out for us with the likes of the fundies who moved to Texas in the early 80's after they screwed up the rest of the country!

[blm]

33. As someone who once went from NY and LA to South Carolina, I definitely salute your efforts

.

[mbperrin]

28. Sometimes you get a nice chuckle out of living in Texas.

Like when the KKK called a rally at our local courthouse a few years back and were met with an extremely hostile crowd of all kinds of folks, young, old, white, brown, black. They had to ask the black sheriff of the county for protection from the crowd!

Still makes me laugh. And gave me a nice prideful moment in my fellow citizens, even if we do live in the empty quarter west of I-35.

[depakid]

42. Molly Ivins may have said it best:

Texas is a National Laboratory for Bad Government.

[The Genealogist]

18. Then the RWers should accomplish something besides crime!

The RW dog and pony show knows only a few tricks:

Create more poor people to bash

Enrich the rich

Enshrine religion and fascism into American law

fight constant illegal war in which they rarely participate outside of a planning room

Repukes and other RWers simply do not govern for anyone but themselves. They do NOTHING to advance the country, they do nothing to transform the country in a positive way. I wonder: what would America have looked like at the end of another four years of Herbert Hoover? What would WWII have been like if some ideological RW purist had been in office in 1941? What would Nixon's reaction to the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Revolution more generally have looked like? What would life have been like in a 1967 with Goldwater as president? I shudder to even think.

BTW to RWers: St Ronnie did not single-handedly defeat the evil Soviet Union with one hand tied behind his back as you like to think he did...more than anything they spent themselves into collapse.

[mbperrin]

34. Why doesn't this article mention that the nuts are on their way out?

They're simply running out the clock after they were beaten in the most recent election days ago.


http://www.statesman.com/opinion/voters-not-singing-pra...

Voters not singing praises of extremist bloc
Updated: 3:31 p.m. Friday, March 5, 2010
Published: 5:18 p.m. Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The State Board of Education bloc that pushes an extreme fundamentalist Christian agenda took a hard hit to its solar plexus in Tuesday's balloting, but while down, they're not completely out.

The bloc is usually referred to euphemistically as "social conservatives." In reality, they are religious extremists bent on injecting their worldviews into the public school curriculum. Don McLeroy, a Bryan dentist who is a leader of the bloc and who served two yearsas board chairman, was defeated in the Republican primary by Thomas Ratliff of Mount Pleasant.

McLeroy's views brought him great notoriety in Texas — andelsewhere. The dentist declared, for example, that dinosaurs co-existed with humans, and he insisted on whitewashing the record of the disgraced Sen. Joe McCarthy, whose hunt for Communists in the 1950s whipped the nation into a paranoid frenzy. McCarthy saw Communists everywhere — even in the Army.

McCarthy was ultimately censured by the U.S. Senate and died in 1957.

McLeroy was so extreme in his views that the Texas Senate — no collection of pointy-headed liberals — refused to confirm him as chairman of the State Board of Education last year. Ratliff, a lobbyist, will be unopposed in the November general election.

Lower inprofile but nonetheless surprising was Geraldine "Tincy" Miller's loss to Republican challenger George Clayton, an educator in the Dallas school district. Miller notched 26 years on the board. Ousting Miller, a former board chairwoman, was quite an accomplishment.

In Lubbock, board member Bob Craig survived a GOP primary challenge by Odessa School Board President Randy Rives, who was aligned with the McLeroy faction.

The McLeroy faction currently occupies seven of the 15 seats on the education board.The Tuesday primaries, combined with the voluntary retirement of Cynthia Dunbar — who declared that President Barack Obama sympathized with terrorists plotting another attack on the U.S. — takes three of the seven-member bloc out of action come January.

more at link...

[jmowreader]

39. I would love there to be an honest appraisal of Ronald Reagan in those textbooks

Seeing as how Reagan promised to cut taxes then raised them four times, promised to cut spending but accelerated it, promised to reduce the size of government but grew it, and promised to eliminate two cabinet departments (the Departments of Education and Energy) that are still there, plus he employed more crooks than any other president in history, an honest appraisal of St. Ronald of Reagan would end conservatism forever.

[Joanne98]

40. The rest of the 49 states should just boycott the books this year!

Just use the ones form last year and tell the texas fundies to go straight to Hell!