parting the waters…with the founding fathers

People for the American Way (PFAW) have been campaigning against attempts to further undermine the value of a public school education in Texas.  The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) has been considering approval of new social studies texts for the state system.  Today I received the following message from PFAW…

Last week, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) voted to approve new social studies textbooks after a contentious battle over how they address issues such as climate change, slavery, and the biblical influence on America’s founding,

We scored some big victories against Radical Right attempts to stick propaganda into social studies and government textbooks!

Our allies at the Texas Freedom Network noted that, due in no small part to your activism, the final SBOE textbook standards:

REMOVED: climate-change denial
REMOVED: biased depiction of affirmative action
CORRECTED: slavery identified as primary cause of Civil War
REJECTED: inflammatory content stereotyping Muslims

However, some of these textbooks STILL teach that Moses influenced the writing of the Constitution and that the roots of democracy can be found in the Old Testament. Despite much pressure from historians, as well as activists like you from Texas and across America, the SBOE would not correct those inaccuracies. (Over on Right Wing Watch, we have full coverage of the SBOE’s decision to keep Moses as an “honorary founding father.”)

We’ll keep working to make sure textbook publishers know they need to do the right thing and keep propaganda masquerading as history out of the textbooks they sell to school systems across the country.

Thank you for signing the petition and speaking out against the Right’s attempts to push their ideology on students. Please keep spreading the word>>