AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A longtime State Board of Education member accused her colleagues of "whitewashing" curriculum standards Thursday and walked out of the panel’s meeting in frustration amid heated debates about race and the inclusion of Hispanics in lesson plans.
The board had rejected an effort to include the names of two Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients and one black recipient in lessons for a world history class, but agreed to revisit the amendment for an American history class. It also approved an amendment that deletes a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society."
Decisions by the board — long led by social conservatives who have advocated ideas such as teaching more about the weaknesses of evolutionary theory — affects textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers’ biggest clients.
Berlanga, who has served on the board since 1982, walked out of the meeting after reviewing upcoming amendments involving the inclusion of Hispanic names in the standards.
"I’ve had it, this is it," she said. "I’m leaving. We can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist."
snip
Berlanga said race relations in the U.S. have progressed, but Hispanics "are still going through discrimination if we can’t even put two names as recipients of the Medal of Honor."
http://kohm.org/...
Tip of the iceberg.
9:40 – We’re just picking ourselves up off the floor. The board’s far-right faction has spent months now proclaiming the importance of emphasizing America’s exceptionalism in social studies classrooms. But today they voted to remove one of the greatest of America’s Founders, Thomas Jefferson, from a standard about the influence of great political philosophers on political revolutions from 1750 to today.
9:45 – Here’s the amendment Dunbar changed: "explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present." Here’s Dunbar’s replacement standard, which passed: "explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone." Not only does Dunbar’s amendment completely change the thrust of the standard. It also appalling drops one of the most influential political philosophers in American history — Thomas Jefferson.
9:51 – Dunbar’s amendment striking Jefferson passed with the votes of the board’s far-right members and board member Geraldine "Tincy" Miller of Dallas.
Yes you read that correctly.
John Calvin in. Thomas Jefferson out.
11:46 – These board members clearly haven’t got a clue how to craft a curriculum document that’s streamlined, coherent and focused. They are far more interested in seeding the standards with whatever ideological pet causes they have. Pity the students and teachers of Texas for the foolishness they must endure.
12:11 – One is tempted to climb to the top of the Texas Education Agency building and shout: "These people have lost their minds."
Then a Democrat asks for a church/state separation inclusion and gets this..
12:32 – Board member Cynthia Dunbar argues that the Founders didn’t intend for separation of church and state in America. And she’s off on a long lecture about why the Founders intended to promote religion. She calls this amendment "not historically accurate."
12:35 – Knight’s amendment fails on a straight party-line vote, 5-10. Republicans vote no, Democrats vote yes.
12:38 – Let the word go out here: The Texas State Board of Education today refused to require that students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others. They voted to lie to students by omission.
Live blogging excepts above from the Texas Freedom Network. I have quoted just a few of the outrages they so importantly documented. Please go read all of it.
http://tfninsider.org/...
And credit where due to Charles Johnson at lgf for having been on top of these creeps for a while.
Today he was all over this story. Here is a hat tip link to a must see abc nightline interview with the head young earth creep on the school board.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/...
Here’s a picture of willful ignorance and appalling stupidity, as ABC News Nightline interviews young earth creationist Don McLeroy — the head of the Texas State Board of Education. Nightline correctly points out that the fundamentalist right wing agenda of Neanderthals like McLeroy is influencing education in the entire country; a wake-up call for anyone who still believes in the separation of church and state.