Editorial: Texas State Board of Education an Enlightenment

Texas lived up to its reputation as the Lone Star State when the State Board of Education… Texas lived up to its reputation as the Lone Star State when the State Board of Education approved a newly amended social studies curriculum Friday.

After three days of meetings, the Board succeeded in creating a more conservative perspective for history education, and the textbooks used in its public schools will directly reflect these new changes.

There is more to gain from this change in Texas’ educational system than a mere affirming gauge of the state’s stereotypically Republican political demographic — these conservative amendments speak to the awesome power of education regulation.

For the next 10 years, Texan students from kindergarten to 12th grade will learn about the Black Panthers to provide some balance when learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

They will miss out on learning about historical Hispanic figures and will pass on Thomas Jefferson and the Enlightenment for some Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, according to The New York Times. These students comprise an entire generation of people that will influence its immediate society.

“[They] are adding balance,” to left-skewed Academia, Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the Board, said in the Times article.

The Board is rewriting history in a sense, rewriting the history that many Americans have already accepted as the standard. It is incredible how much sway politically oriented people can have in something as organic as education.

What is powerful about this move is the deviation from the standard. Although that deviation might have gone too far, it is a deviation nonetheless. A board of education has incredible influence, for better or worse. It begs the pondering of exactly how such a board should be composed and run.

Public education has always suffered from a conflict of interests between what is culturally pertinent and what is considered to be historically factual. These do not always separate cleanly, giving written history some bias. Separation of church and state seems almost ironic for the buckle of the Bible Belt.

Residents of Texas elected these Board members to represent them. If the result is to their liking, then the system worked. But if Texans were shocked, they will be careful voting next time and might reconsider the Board.

So this is not a question of political views but a question of the structure of state educational systems. The nation can learn whether or not the current systems are the best from this education review.

Besides questioning the mechanics of representation of the Board, one should question exactly who is on it. For example, Gail Lowe (R), chair of the Texas State Board of Education, has volunteered teaching elementary students. Besides that, according to the Board’s website, she has no other teaching experience. Teachers would be the most ideal candidates to chair for an education board, though to their credit, other board members have been educators in the past.

Neighboring states shouldn’t worry.

When textbooks were only available in print, a heavy contender like Texas, with its $22 billion education budget, would determine the contents of the sole version of the book supplied. With electronic format now readily available, changes in the text are easy to make. So textbooks that are slightly different than Texas’ will not be as hard to come by.

Additionally, teachers in Texas public schools have already been teaching about much of the items removed from lists to be focused on in classes. It will take a little while for the new review to become the next standard, and so in that while, students might receive some information on Jefferson and historic Hispanicfigures.

The strength a few elected members can have in a small-bodied board is something for Texans — and all Americans for that matter — to consider when next electing their boards. It seems the Texas State Board of Education review of 2010 will be enlightening all the same.