Jews and Hindus have urged the Texas State Board of Education to treat all the major religions and denominations evenly in its Social Studies curriculum, which is currently under revision.
Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, prominent Jewish leader in Nevada and California; and Rajan Zed, well known Hindu statesman; in a statement in Nevada, said that opening-up the Texas schoolchildren to major world religions, Native American spirituality, and non-believers’ viewpoint would make them well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow.
Freirich and Zed (who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism) argued that Texas was a very diverse society and it also made a good business sense to know the beliefs of “others” in a global community. Moreover, students should have knowledge of the entire society to become full participants in the society and it also helped advance Board’s goal “to provide the best possible education to public school students”.
Headquartered in Austin, State Board of Education establishes policy and provides leadership for the Texas public school system. Gail Lowe is Chair of the 15-member elected Board while Commissioner of Education Robert Scott is its Chief Executive Officer. Texas public school system consists of over 4.7 million school children, 630,000 educators and other employees, over 8,200 campuses, 1,229 school districts and charter schools. Texas is second largest state of USA.
