Texas Textbook Debate Inflames Passions on All Sides

(CBS/AP)

The Texas School Board of Education continues to finalize changes to the state's curriculum today, in what has become a hyper-partisan, drawn-out debate, leaving both liberals and conservatives angry and exasperated.

"Setting up a structure so that teachers can teach their students history should be easy. It should be boring and uncontroversial, too," declared Michael Hurta of the prominent, left-leaning Texas blog the Burnt Orange Report. "But it's not like that."

The board decided yesterday that Texas students will be required to evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty, and that students must discuss the solvency of "long-term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare."

In one of the most contentious moments Thursday came when the board added a reference to President Obama. One of the conservatives on the board wanted to refer to the president by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, but liberals on the board decried the motion as underhandedly derogatory.

"Thursday was supposed to be the board's chance to debate the social studies standards before it votes on the final product today, and the squabbling was mind-numbing," Texas Observer reporter Abby Rapoport writes. "It was clear things weren't going to go smoothly when the board members began to debate whether slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War."

The injection of politics and ideology into the discussion about curriculum drew hundreds of citizens to Thursday's meeting to testify both for and against the changes the board is considering adopting. Interested parties are following the debate on Twitter with the hashtags #SaveHistory and #SBOE. Liberals are even using the debate to fundraise for two Democratic board candidates.

The board continued debate today, passing an amendment comparing "communist command economies" and "free enterprise," according to Rapaport. It also revisited one of the most contentious proposals on the table -- to downplay the role of Thomas Jefferson in American history and add more about religious figures like John Calvin. The proposal has drawn criticism from educators and others.

Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post writes that the proposed changes regarding Jefferson might be "most egregious twist of history" the board is considering.

"It makes you wonder why education reformers only insist that teachers are highly qualified to keep their jobs," Strauss writes. "Shouldn't there be some basic test of sanity for people who make education policy?"

Meanwhile, Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online mocks the liberal outrage over the changes such as the discussion about efforts to "undermine" U.S. sovereignty.

"What kind of fascist talk is that?" he writes. "And are they suggesting that something could be wrong with global organizations? No wonder Texas acquired a reputation for boobery."

The board's decisions will set the standards for the history curriculum for about 4.8 million public school students in Texas for the next 10 years. Given the large size of the Texas textbook market, the changes could to influence curriculums nationwide.

[NewRepublican]

After having read some of a new social studies book that painted a favorable image of Islamic States I was not surprised that within 15 minutes I was able to find that half the textbooks on Tennessee's approved list are produced by "McDougal Littel "and "Houghton Mifflin Company", ?Holt Rinehart? and other companies that now belong to Dubai World.

http://www.tennesseebook.com/web_pages/catalogs/text_catalog.asp

The company was formerly known as Houghton Mifflin Company, changing its name following the 2007 acquisition of Harcourt Publishing. It was a subsidiary of Education Media and Publishing Group Limited (EMPG), an Irish-owned holding company registered in the Cayman Islands and formerly known as the Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group, until March of 2010.

Education Media and Publishing Group (EMPG), was bought by Istithmar World in 2006, when (EMPG) and Barry O?Callaghan were both having severe financial problems . Istithmar World is a subsidiary of Dubai World, one of the largest holding companies in the world and Dubai's flag bearer in global investments. As a holding company, Dubai World manages and supervises a diversified portfolio of businesses and projects for the Government of Dubai and works towards making Dubai a leading hub for global trade and commerce.

http://www.dubaiworld.ae/

http://www.istithmarworld.com/index/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75&Itemid=47

http://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/oct/12/ocallaghans-empg-is-hit-by-debt-concerns/

A large number of textbooks in Tennessee are therefore a product of the Government of the United Arab Emirates. The head of the company is the prime minister of UAE.

Their government is drastically different than ours. By tradition, the emirates are generally under patriarchal rule with political allegiance defined in terms of loyalty to tribal leaders, to leaders of the individual emirates, and to leaders of the federation. There are no democratically elected legislative institutions or political parties. There are no general elections.



How can the foreign country ownership of the largest textbook company in the U.S. not be public knowledge? Why is nobody talking about this?
How much of our education budget is going to this?

Could you please look into this?

Granted I am not a professional investigator, but it sure looks like something is wrong here.

[Fu52QkKVZ7]

"I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation while sin is a reproach to any people."

Frederick Douglass


Alas, this policy is in the long tradition of all nationalists:

1. Our Nation is the most important nation.
2. The interest of the nation is an unquestionable value by itself. This is an intersting item already discovered by the Nazis."The German Spirit shall heal the World" they called it.
3. History must be reviewed from time to time to adjust to current needs.
4. If current needs are in conflict with historical facts, the historical facts must be wrong and will be corrected. This has been done in Old Egypt, Rome, Nazi Germany, the USSR and the USA. Germany as a matter of fact had twice in the 20th century the occasion to correct the past: after 1945 there were no Nazis to be found in the country and after 1989 no one ever belonged to the STASI (East German Intelligence Agency)
5. American Natives most likeley retreated volunterily into reservations because they saw a better life in civilization and African Natives missed the fine print when buying the ticket for a trip over the Atlantic Ocean.
6. It is much easier to collect prejudices instead of applying the Art of Independent Thinking. It is even easier to crowd around a collection of prejudices and burn the dissidents as witches.
7. "My mind is made up, do not confuse me with facts!" (Proverb)

[FP1970]

Way to go Texans for teaching Politically Correct snivellers that their monopoly on education is over. I hope that the Mexican gov't is really angry about the final version of the eventual curriculum and I hope that all advocates of "multiculturalism" are even angrier. With any luck, the Castro brothers won't be too happy about it either, if they take a break from running their island prison camp and read about it, in a non-censored newpaper that they would not allow other Cubans to read.

[FP1970]

Don't those Texans know that the only people whose rights matter are Left-Wing Political Correctoids and that those are the views that MUST prevail in all textbooks? These Texans have a lot of nerve, acting as if their school system should reflect their values and not the values of hostile left-wing, anti-American, pro-Mexican, pro-Taliban activists.

[Powerhugs]

What is fascinating to me is that the liberal board members are making this an issue since it translates to a form of censorship....In addition did u ever notice that the Obama administration is constantly using the term "transparent" every other day about something...Why aren't we being transparent about Pres Obama's birthname for heavens sake?!? Thank goodness we have some educational panelists in Texas that are showing some backbone here....

[Peace_Be]

Let Texas secede from our nation as they want to change what it was founded on. Also lets give Arizona to Mexico as a gift and then they won't have to worry about illegal aliens anymore.

[Perish1]

I say that Texas is certainly going the right direction by having an honest debate of what is most important to pass on to their children. The fact that there are more conservative members on this board merely offsets the trend for the past few decades where the textbook boards have been becoming more liberal. I don't remember there ever being any decisions of those past boards being made public prior to the printing and distribution of the textbooks. Good going Texas!

[Beyond-The-Spectrum]

Typical extreme Right-Wing revisionism. If you don't like the official version, change it to suit YOUR beliefs. Granted, history books have had a slightly Leftist bent over the past generation, this is pushing the teaching of history way past the middle way.

Beyond-The-Political-Spectrum.blogspot

[texas_liberal]

In the end it wont matter, the Internet is what will allow most of these kids to grow up and have a "Choice" over their creative and political leanings. im sure for some 10 gallon hat types, they dont see the futility of their propaganda, information is everywhere now.

[bantamei]

The TRUTH is too liberal for dumba$$ conservatives. According to Texas repubLIEcans, the US didn't get into the slave trade, it was "Atlantic triangular trade". What a bunch of idiots. Get ready for a theocracy folks. Seems the "lie" in repubLIEcans means more every day.