On Friday, the members of the Texas State Board of Education voted 9-5 on social studies curriculum standards for Texas Public Schools. Proposed revisions to textbooks will largely eliminate the civil rights movement from the curriculum.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous were among those who spoke before the board earlier in the week. Paige, who served as Education Secretary during President George W. Bush’s first term, implored the board members to take more time to consider the new standards, saying they will diminish the importance of civil rights and slavery.
For example, references to activists such as Susan B. Anthony and Upton Sinclair will be minimized. In a small concession by conservatives, Thomas Jefferson was restored to a list of political philosophers to be studied. Jefferson’s place in U.S. and world history had originally been largely removed because he advocated the separation of church and state. Students will, however, be taught that “separation of church and state” is not in the U.S. Constitution.
More than 1,200 scholars from universities across the state wrote a letter condemning the board for falling short of “providing even a basic education to Texas school children.”
“Standards are supposed to be about equity, not about marginalizing certain groups by using political power,” said Dr. Julian V. Heilig, assistant professor of education policy and planning and affiliate faculty in the department of African and African American Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Standards, accountability and testing were created under the auspices of creating greater equity for students who have been historically underserved by the schools, the districts and the state,” he says. “As standards have become more and more politically defined the histories of those groups are being defined by other groups. When you disempower the history of the very groups that these standards were created to serve, the unintended consequences, I believe, is that these students are disempowered by those changes. It serves as a disincentive for these kids to stay in school.”
A huge concern is that this decision will affect more than the 4.8 million Texas students who will be taught under these guidelines for the next 10 years. Texas is such a large consumer of textbooks that changes to Texas curriculum can have a national impact.
