Last month, the Texas Education Authorityfundamentally changed how humanities subjects would be taught in schools.
Thomas Jefferson was removed from a discussion on the Founding Fathers, the term "capitalism" was stricken from economics lessons, the separation between church and state was glossed over, Joe McCarthy and Ronald Reagan replaced John F. Kennedy and the history of changing gender roles was tossed over concerns that it would lead students into "transsexualism."
A bill introduced recently in the California state legislature seeks to prevent these changes from seeping into textbooks in the Golden State. The bill, introduced by California State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) is largely symbolic, however, since California will not be purchasing textbooks in the near future due to budget cuts.
"There needs to be a counter to this," said Lee's chief of staff Adam J. Keigwin, referring to the Texas revisions.
Yee introduced SB 1471, which requires the state's board of eduction to examine all future textbooks so that none of Texas' new regulations would enter California schools. The bill is currently making its way through the state legislature.
"It goes beyond politics," Keigwin told the Huffington Post.
When the bill cleared an early legislative hurdle last week, Yee said in a statement: "Our kids should be provided an education based on facts and that embraces our multicultural nation."
Texas and California are the states with the two largest K-12 student populations in the country. With millions of potential textbooks to be sold, publishers will more often than not cater to the
