[RSCT] AP 3/12/10: Texas ed board vote reflects far-right influences

[Rick Kisséll]

Texas ed board vote reflects far-right influences

            
                                
                    By APRIL CASTRO, Associated Press Writer 
3/12/10

AUSTIN, Texas –
 A far-right faction of the Texas 
State Board of Education
 succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, 
history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of 
students for the next decade.

                        Teachers in Texas will be required to cover 
the Judeo-Christian
 influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not
 highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and 
state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic,"
 rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the 
decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the 
gold standard.

                        "We have been about conservatism versus 
liberalism," said Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the 
standards. "We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be 
in the document, regardless as to whether or not it's appropriate."

                        Following three days of impassioned and 
acrimonious debate, the board gave preliminary approval to the new 
standards with a 10-5 party
 line vote. A final vote is expected in May, after a 
public 
comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.
                        Decisions by the board — made up of lawyers, a
 dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others — can affect 
textbook content nationwide because Texas
 is one of publishers' biggest clients.

                        Ultraconservatives wielded their power over 
hundreds of subjects this week, introducing and rejecting amendments on 
everything from the civil 
rights movement to global

 politics. Hostilities flared and prompted a walkout 
Thursday by 
one of the board's most prominent Democrats, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, who 
accused her colleagues of "whitewashing" curriculum standards.

                        By late Thursday night, three other Democrats
 seemed to sense their futility and left, leaving Republicans to easily 
push through amendments heralding "American
 exceptionalism" and the U.S. free 
enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive 
government intervention.

                        "Some board members themselves acknowledged 
this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas
 is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just
 about every decision," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, 
which advocates for religious freedom.

                        Republican Terri Leo, a member of the 
powerful Christian
 conservative voting bloc, called the standards "world class" and 
"exceptional."

                        Board members argued about the classification
 of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.);
 whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
 and its impact on global
 politics (they will); and whether former
 Israeli Prime Minister
 Golda Meir should
 be required learning (she will).

                        In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the 
board specified a reference to the Second
 Amendment right to bear arms in a 
section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.
                        Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to 
include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural
 movement.

                        Numerous attempts to add the names or 
references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, 
inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo
 alongside Davy Crockett
 and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology 
students "explain how institutional

 racism is evident in American society."

                        Democrats did score a victory by deleting a 
portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement 
led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."

                        Fort Worth Republican Pat Hardy, a longtime
 
teacher, voted for the new standards, but said she wished the board 
could work with a more cooperative spirit.

                        "What we've done is we've taken a document 
that by nature is too long to begin with and then we've lengthened it 
some more," Hardy said, shortly after the vote. "Those long lists of 
names that we've put in there ... it's just too long.

                        "I just think we failed to keep that in mind,
 it's hard for teachers to get through it all."












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