Educators decry bull invasion

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

The State Board of Education’s final approval of new social studies curriculum standards makes clear that the Texas way of deciding curriculum content for public school children is seriously flawed, writes Texas education activist Kathy Miller.

“Teams of teachers and scholars labored throughout much of last year to draft new social studies curriculum standards,” she says. “Then the politicians on the Texas State Board of Education sent the experts home.” Took the drafts and in short shrift made “detailed, ill-considered and blatantly political” changes leaving proper professionals dumbfounded.

Board members voted on hundreds of changes in the social studies curriculum ─ without one historian, economist or any other social studies expert in the room to advise them; and though individual board members claimed to have vetted their revisions with experts before the meetings, other members said they had been forced to cast votes on changes they had never seen. The result was that many decisions, Miller reports, were based on members’ “Google and Wikipedia” searches, their “limited personal knowledge and personal and political biases.…

“Educators could only watch in despair.… Schoolchildren deserve far better.”

The social studies and history curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education last Friday, the Associated Press reported, “amends or waters down the teaching of religious freedoms and the United States’ relationship with the United Nations.” Students are required to “evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.” The board increases requirements for “teaching Judeo-Christian influences” on U.S. founders and mandates references to U.S. government not as democratic but as a “‘constitutional republic.’” Students are required “to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar and the abandonment of the gold standard.” Voting 9-5 along political party lines, the board’s action targeting high school government courses waters down “the rationale for separation of church and state and requires students to compare and contrast the judicial language with wording in the First Amendment.”

A study by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund found that “78 percent of parents want teachers and scholars ─ not elected state board members ─ to be responsible for writing curriculum standards and textbook requirements for public schools.”

In her opinion piece this week, Miller as president of the Texas Freedom Network declares that it is time to fix a flawed system the state board is “clearly unwilling to fix.” The Texas Legislature so far has considered but failed to pass bills putting primary responsibility for the adoption of curriculum standards and textbooks in the hands of classroom teachers and academic experts. It is time for lawmakers to revisit those recommendations to “ensure that public schools are focused on educating children ─ not promoting the personal and political agendas of elected state board members.”


Sources and notes
“Kathy Miller: ‘Time for Texas to fix flawed curriculum process,’” May 25, 2010, http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-miller_26edi.State.Edition1.244ea05.html
Kathy Miller is president of the Texas Freedom Network, a public education and religious liberties watchdog based in Austin, Texas.
“Texas board adopts new social studies curriculum,” April Castro, Associated Press May 21, 2010, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPQ3ktQNqImWyQ23yXKoCFXWrN1QD9FRK9E01



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