Stand up to the Texas Taliban
If you thought that decisions made by the Texas State Board of Education don't affect you, think again.
Led by far-right ideologues, the Texas SBOE recently gave preliminary approval to a plan that would radically change what children across the country learn in history class.
The ultra-conservative majority on the board (none of whom are experts in any academic discipline and many of whom are explicitly anti-science) took the curricula proposed by teachers and made more than 100 changes to "correct" the perceived left-wing bias.
But it gets worse. Since Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the country, material written to cater to the Texas curricula will find its way into textbooks across the country unless textbook publishers take a stand.
We can't allow a small group of extreme ideologues on the Texas State Board of Education to re-write history. Tell textbook publishers to stand up to the Texas Taliban.
Children who use textbooks conforming to the new standards will not learn anything about Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy or his thoughts on the separation of church and state. When they learn about the Civil War, they'll have to study Jefferson Davis' inaugural address alongside Abraham Lincoln's. And when they study the civil rights movement they'll have to learn about the "unintended consequences" of Great Society programs, affirmative action and Title IX. Oh -- and Joe McCarthy was right all along no matter what historians actually say about it.
It's outrageous. Education will fail if we can't teach our children history. We can't let these far-right ideologues co-opt our educational system.
Tell the textbook publishers: Don't let the Texas Taliban rewrite history.
For more information, read these two New York Times articles:How Christian Were the Founders? and Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change