Wisconsin Capital Times: Protect kids from Terrible 10 in Texas

[marmar]

Protect kids from Terrible 10 in Texas
Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 4:50 am |


I hereby petition the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to protect our children from the irresponsible, bigoted, revisionist Terrible 10.

Who are they? The Republican majority on the Texas Board of Education, which last week took a step toward force a conservative agenda into its social studies curriculum in a party line 10-5 vote. Previously, they’ve taken similar votes on evolution and biological sciences.

Were they only engineering an agenda for Texas, one might be embarrassed for Texans but justify it as a proper result from a board that was, after all, elected. But the decisions of the Texas Board of Education have repercussions that extend well beyond the Texas border.

It seems that textbook companies often incorporate Texas curriculum standards into texts for nationwide distribution because of the outsized number of Texas schools that purchase them. So the textbook industry’s structure allows a majority on the Texas board to determine standards affecting schools nationwide.

Something about that stinks. It’s a painful irony that such a process guides how to teach, among other things, the underpinnings of the democratic process. But few non-Texans knew or cared about it until last week. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/margaret_krome/article_08f76659-52f2-5a85-8288-7f791ff7201d.html

[damyank913]

1. I know Texas is big; and they have America's team and all but

Do they really use books? C'mon really?

[el_bryanto]

2. They got a lot of kids. They and california are the biggest markets for school books

And it makes little sense for textbook publishers to write one set of books for Texas and one set for the rest of America. So they can have an undue effect.

Bryant

[midnight]

3. It better make more than Wisconsin jump to their feet.

"So the textbook industry’s structure allows a majority on the Texas board to determine standards affecting schools nationwide.
Something about that stinks. It’s a painful irony that such a process guides how to teach, among other things, the underpinnings of the democratic process. But few non-Texans knew or cared about it until last week."

But Wisconsin beware, a republican who wants to be gov. only has a GED, and Scott Walker has no plans to further educated himself beyond that scope. Wisconsin better wake up and vote for a Governor who values education for himself and others-Mayor Tom Barrett. Wisconsin vote for the next Democratic Governor of Wisconsin-Tom Barrett.

[WillyT]

4. K & R !!! - Did You See This ???

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7925801

:hi:

[tanyev]

5. Newsflash....the end of their influence is already in sight.

It would have been nice to see the media get their knickers in a twist about this a few years ago, when it could have done more good.



Texas' influence on textbooks could wane

As a giant in the textbook market, Texas and its education officials have left fingerprints on the classroom readers used far beyond the Red River.

The long reach of the State Board of Education has attracted outsized national attention for years as board members engaged in pitched battles over textbook content from evolution to the Founding Fathers.

But changes in Texas' purchasing practices, a looming budget shortfall and legislators' efforts to wean schools off hardbound textbooks could mean that Texas — and the State Board of Education — will no longer be the arbiter of content it has been in the past.

The textbooks being purchased now for language arts classes will probably mark "the end of the high-level of Texas influence as we knew it in the '70s, '80s and '90s," said David Anderson , a former director of curriculum at the Texas Education Agency and now a lobbyist whose clients include a major textbook publisher.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/texas-influence-on-textbooks-could-wane-336909.html



Voters Spank Far Right in SBOE Elections

Voters made it clear on Tuesday that they are tired of seeing the State Board of Education threaten the future of Texas schoolchildren with unnecessary and divisive “culture war” battles over curriculum and textbooks, the president of the Texas Freedom Network said today.

TFN President Kathy Miller noted that three of five far-right social conservatives lost election contests on Tuesday. A fourth was forced into a runoff. One of the defeated candidates was Don McLeroy, whom the state Senate refused to confirm for a second term as board chair in May 2009.

“Don McLeroy was right when he said this election was a referendum on what the board has done over the past four years,” Miller said. “Voters sent a clear message by rejecting the ringleader of the faction that has repeatedly dragged our public schools into the nation’s divisive culture wars over the past four years. Parents want a state board that focuses on educating their kids, not promoting divisive political and personal agendas.”

The Republican primary between McLeroy and challenger Thomas Ratliff of Mount Pleasant had the highest profile of all the state board contests. In addition to McLeroy’s defeat in District 9, Randy Rives of Odessa lost his race against incumbent Bob Craig of Lubbock in the District 15 Republican primary, and Joan Muenzler lost her District 3 GOP primary against fellow San Antonian Tony Cunningham. Both Rives and Muenzler were backed by far-right groups such as WallBuilders and the Texas Pastor Council.

http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/03/voters-spank-far-right-in-sboe-elections/

[damyank913]

6. Thanks for that-there's hope after all.