Texas Board of Education curriculum changes could affect Pennsylvania and New Jersey public school textbooks
In Texas, it soon might be hard to find the word capitalism in public school textbooks.
Instead, try free enterprise system.
This is just one of the preliminary social studies curriculum changes the elected conservative bloc of the Texas Board of Education passed earlier this month. The board's vote could influence textbook materials beyond the borders of the Lone Star State because it is one of the country's biggest textbook purchasers. More than 48 million textbooks are given to students each year, according to the state education agency.
Texas' influence in the school publishing world has sparked fears that students in other parts of the country could soon be learning from textbooks that don't list Thomas Jefferson as an Enlightenment thinker who influenced 18th and 19th century revolutions, another one of the changes.
But with the rise of technology and state learning standards, reviews are mixed on the true power Texas wields over textbooks in Lehigh Valley classrooms.
"The conventional wisdom is as California and Texas goes, so goes the nation in terms of textbooks," Saucon Valley School District Assistant Superintendent Carl Atkinson said. "I think that is becoming less and less true as the textbook industry has gotten more and more responsive to state standards."
Texas book standards up for final vote in May
Texas' standards are reviewed every decade. Changes on the social studies revisions are up for a 30-day public comment period starting in mid-April with a final vote scheduled for May.
The social studies changes among many things, will likely