Voices will raise. Saliva will dampen microphones. Eyes will narrow, and eyes will widen. Fingers will tap furiously on keyboards and touch pads. Time limits will be up, and crowds will gather in hallways.
On Wednesday, May 19, the Texas State Board of Education will hear the final public testimony and take a final vote on social studies standards (think guns, God and government) for public school textbooks.
Debates have been raging for months, garnering the attention of everyone from Stephen Colbert to Fox News, the Washington Post to the New York Times. We all know that the big newspapers drool over Texas when the stories involve guns, the death penalty or the religious right.
Decisions have been made that will impact U.S. history, government and social studies classes in Texas public schools and beyond. The dominating Texas textbook industry penetrates state boundaries - textbooks written with Texas standards are sold around the nation. What goes in the textbooks will be reflected in classroom discussions and standardized tests over the next 10 years. Last year, the board revised science standards for the next decade. Sitting in that room, I felt I had traveled through time to Scopes vs. The State of Tennessee.
Wednesday's final meeting on social studies standards is not just any state hearing. Unfortunately, most Texans who have even heard about the meeting probably think it's your average meeting of elected officials most people forget to vote for.
The SBOE is made up of 10 Republicans and five Democrats. Seven of the 10 Republicans are considered far-right social conservatives, often dubbed the "conservative bloc." These 15 members are some of the most influential elected officials in the state - and if you consider how many Texas textbooks are taught in other states, perhaps the nation.
Former chairman Don McLeroy has even boasted about the influence his board has on what public school kids are learning, calling it "gigantic." McLeroy, is on his way out, after a March primary beating by Thomas Ratliff, who has a Libertarian, but no Democratic, opponent in November.
In a meeting earlier this year, board member Cynthia Dunbar, a Republican (who isn't seeking reelection), proposed to remove Thomas Jefferson from the Enlightenment curriculum, and add John Calvin. John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone remained after the board voted. Dunbar has called the establishment of public schools tyrannical and unconstitutional - an interesting view for someone elected to make decisions about public schools.
Board member Barbara Cargill, a Repubilican, proposed that adding a discussion of right to bear arms when discussing the First Amendment. Nothing wrong with discussing the Second Amendment, but how about during a discussion on the Second Amendment?
Board member Mavis Knight, a Democrat, proposed an amendment that would ask students to "examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others." The board, on a partisan vote of 10-5, voted against including this in the social studies curriculum, after hearing Dunbar's rebuttal that the Founding Fathers did not intend to promote the separation of church and state.
I'll be at the hearing tomorrow morning. From my experience blogging for the Houston Press last year when the board voted on science standards, I know tomorrow will be as entertaining as it is frightening. I only hope more Texans will open their eyes to the influence our elected officials have in the classroom.
Follow Karie Meltzer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/karianna913
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Why were these states not required to change their laws until after the civil war?
I contend the States withheld the power of establishing religion from the United States Government which they had assembled and only the US govt, not from themselves. The 14th amendment changed everything with the no state shall deny any person clause, effectively dismembering all Christian governments.
I'd like to apologize to all the men and women who've fought and died around the world to keep us free from tyranny..WE &%$#@ UP at home--and the ignoramuses you fought to keep us free from in so many OTHER countries--have taken over while the troops were away...FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM.
(see the irony here?) {Texans, feel free to hit the library to look up what "irony' means--we'll wait.}
That much is obvious now.This group of well-meaning cretins wants to "rewrite" history, so be it.
The truth is ALREADY OUT OF THE BOTTLE, it's TOO LATE--Every 'immigrant" who gets off a jet or ship or whatever, KNOWS our story already--so making our youth MORE ignorant, just hastens the demise of a US-citizen-controlled US--or did your teachers not believe in CRITICAL THINKING either?
Sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalalalalalala" won't change the facts.About ANYTHING. When(not IF-due to idiotic policies like this one), we are displaced as the world's leading economy,for the final time--remember what your reaction was to the Final Dumbing-down Solution was: If you aren't pissed off NOW--THEN will be ENTIRELY too late.
Good luck bringing back the Dark Ages.
MOVE THE TEXTBOOK INDUSTRY OUT OF TEXAS.
There must be another publishing house that would love the business and opportunity to provide jobs so make the move asap.
seriously though, you would think that California and New York would have equal ability to influence these decisions.
I have begun to realize that when asking others for supplies one becomes a slave to the supplies available. CHALK IT UP TO another reason for decentralization of resources, supply, etc... make the local schools subject to the control of the local parents.
Did anyone ever consider the irony that it was from the Texas Schoolbook Depository that one of the most progressive, well educated Presidents was murdered? Was that foretelling, or what?
The not-progressive Regressive Movement started selling us the fictitious benefits of democracy and socialist (government owned) schools around 1900. Now, they are complaining that another group has become the best organized mob in the Texas branch of our "wonderful" de-mob-ocracy. They should have known all along that individuals have the right to vote and no others in democracies. Once the best organized mob rules, everyone has to march in lockstep with their dictates.
We need our constitutional republic back, and we need the freedoms back that it used to protect. Protecting and defending our not-a-living document Constitution and destroying all educational monopolies would be a good start.
By the way, as a teacher of American History and Government, your view of the "not-a-living document Constitution" is so simplistic it is laughable...again, like so many of your brand. The Founding Fathers created the Constitution to be an evolutionary structure. It is why they included an amending process, as well as, the "necessary and proper/elastic clause." It never ocurred to them that future generations should be tied to a document that couldn't meet the needs of a changing nation.