# Texas textbooks are inaccurate, biased and politicized **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696 "2015-10-06T08:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/1 "2015-10-06T08:05:38Z")
Why does the Texas board of education get a say in how our public school text books are written? For at least the last 20 years or so they have been ‘rewriting/ white washing’ history to put it mildly. And they don’t seem at all concerned about getting the facts right and when they are found to be totally wrong and are called on it, they don’t seem at all concerned about fixing it. I understand that since Texas is the largest state, it has the most students so naturally they buy the most books. But why should the fact that the state buys more books than other states give them a free hand in what our kids are taught? > [@](#): > > As recently as last year, scholars reviewing textbooks based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills guidelines found a number of historical misrepresentations, among them several in McGraw-Hill’s proposed textbooks. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/05/immigrant-workers-or-slaves-textbook-maker-backtracks-after-mothers-online-complaint/](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/05/immigrant-workers-or-slaves-textbook-maker-backtracks-after-mothers-online-complaint/) ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/2 "2015-10-06T08:08:50Z")
Reported for forum change. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/3 "2015-10-06T08:42:46Z")
> [@katpohl](#): > > I understand that since Texas is the largest state, it has the most students so naturally they buy the most books. Texas is the second-largest state. It has approximately 27 million people, about 12 million fewer than California, the largest state. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/4 "2015-10-06T08:44:21Z")
[How Texas Inflicts Bad Textbooks on Us](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/5 "2015-10-06T10:55:41Z")
Moved to IMHO from General Questions. **samclem** , moderator ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/6 "2015-10-06T11:05:43Z")
Only Texas? ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/7 "2015-10-06T11:34:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > [How Texas Inflicts Bad Textbooks on Us](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/) Thank you for the article . ---
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/8 "2015-10-06T12:07:19Z")
This is scary, bring on the middle ages. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/9 "2015-10-06T12:14:21Z")
Simpler to just distribute a hard copy of Conservapedia. Probably a lot funnier too. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/10 "2015-10-06T12:15:16Z")
I didn’t read the article, but here’s a short (and I think there’s a longer) youtube video that’s probably going to get the ball rolling on some major changes. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRJUbx-Vju4) TL;DR African slaves are called “workers” and they’re “immigrants” that helped create this wonderful melting pot we call the United States! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/11 "2015-10-06T13:13:24Z")
Does this Texas mother complaining about the caption know what the word “slave” means? Hint: it doesn’t have anything to do with “voluntary”. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/12 "2015-10-06T13:33:09Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I didn’t read the article, but here’s a short (and I think there’s a longer) youtube video that’s probably going to get the ball rolling on some major changes. > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRJUbx-Vju4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRJUbx-Vju4) > > TL;DR > African slaves are called “workers” and they’re “immigrants” that helped create this wonderful melting pot we call the United States! [There’s currently a separate thread on this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=771098) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/13 "2015-10-06T16:58:42Z")
I’ve been promoting the Texas Freedom Network for some time. “Strengthening Public Schools” is one of their goals. For years, they’ve been criticizing the politicized State Board of Education. With some success–neither Creationism nor Intelligent Design are found in our science texts. Alas, the History/Social Studies fight is a war on several fronts. [From a press release](http://tfninsider.org/)on the latest brouhaha: > [@](#): > > Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller responded today to reports about how a new high school geography textbook mischaracterizes the slave trade as simply a migration of workers in American history: > > > [@](#): > > > > First of all, we are encouraged that the publisher is correcting this passage downplaying the history of slavery in the United States. But it’s no accident that this happened in Texas. We have a textbook adoption process that’s so politicized and so flawed that it’s become almost a punch line for comedians. The truth is that too many elected officials who oversee that process are less interested in accurate, fact-based textbooks than they are in promoting their own political views in our kids’ classrooms. So when they review these textbooks, they don’t even recognize distortions that mislead students and that drive scholars nuts… There’s more at the link & at\*[What’s the Deal with Texas History Textbooks and the Civil War?](http://tfninsider.org/2015/07/21/whats-the-deal-with-texas-history-textbooks-and-the-civil-war/)\* The SBOE’s guidelines wanted the causes of secession to be (1) States Rights, (2) Tariffs & one other thing… Yeah, that’s a joke inspired by our last Governor. The current one isn’t as funny–but he _did_ [choose a homeschooler to head the SBOE](http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2015-06-22/abbott-sides-with-homeschoolers/). (Time to send another contribution to the TFN.) ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/14 "2015-10-06T21:42:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > [There’s currently a separate thread on this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=771098) Well, sort’a ,kind’a , but not really . The topic of the thread in the Pit is the Facebook post by the mother whose son text messaged her the image of the caption . And the replies to those posts by others . A couple of thousand replies is mentioned in the Pit thread . I was asking how or why the Texas education board has so much control over what goes into the text books . I’m not very interested in what goes on , on Facebook . ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/15 "2015-10-06T21:56:40Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Only Texas? Yes. California also has a strong influence. I haven’t sorted through all of the links, so forgive me if this is a repeat, but both California and Texas are states in which the textbooks are chosen at the state level for the entire state. At least that was the case recently. If you miss those big markets, you will have a hard time making the sales up, school district by school district, elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/16 "2015-10-06T22:30:02Z")
> [@katpohl](#): > > Well, sort’a ,kind’a , but not really . Yeah, by “this” I meant this post I quoted, not this whole current thread. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/17 "2015-10-07T02:53:53Z")
Proof that we all need to have federal government set education in schools, not local governments. Here we have states that think they have a right to their own version of history. Texas is ranked 39th in education, they should be 50 out of 50. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/18 "2015-10-07T05:32:57Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Yes. California also has a strong influence. I haven’t sorted through all of the links, so forgive me if this is a repeat, but both California and Texas are states in which the textbooks are chosen at the state level for the entire state. At least that was the case recently. If you miss those big markets, you will have a hard time making the sales up, school district by school district, elsewhere. Not true for California. [Cite](http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/cf/imfrpfaq1.asp) From their FAQ. > [@](#): > > Must LEAs use only state-adopted instructional materials? > > No. New for 2013, EC Section 60210 was added via AB 1246 (Brownley). It states the following: > > “(a) Notwithstanding any other law, a local educational agency may use instructional materials that are aligned with the academic content standards adopted pursuant to Section 60605 or 60605.8, including instructional materials that have not been adopted by the state board pursuant to Section 60200. > > (b) Instructional materials for mathematics that are aligned to common core academic content standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative consortium pursuant to Section 60605.7 shall be deemed to be aligned to the content standards adopted pursuant to Section 60605 or 60605.8 for purposes of Section 60119. > > (c) If a local educational agency chooses to use instructional materials that have not been adopted by the state board, the local educational agency shall ensure that a majority of the participants of any review process conducted by the local educational agency are classroom teachers who are assigned to the subject area or grade level of the materials.” > > LEAs may also utilize supplemental resources that meet the requirements of the social content standards requirements. I was a parent on the textbook selection committee reviewing biology texts proposed by a teacher committee at the high school level. I’m happy to report they were excellent, with the exception that the one for the continuation school simplified things to the point of incorrectness. The AP book had a one page interview with Richard Dawkins. Nuff said. So California is not as monolithic, which is a problem in preventing textbook publishes from giving in to Texas. ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/19 "2015-10-07T07:48:47Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Texas is the second-largest state. It has approximately 27 million people, about 12 million fewer than California, the largest state. > [@](#): > > In terms of area, Texas is larger than California by more than 100,000 square miles. California, however, has a greater population and is the most populous state in the nation. Texas has the second-largest population. > > Texas is also the second-largest state by area in the United States, with only Alaska having more square mileage . [http://www.ask.com/geography/california-texas-larger-938629139ea3b6ac](http://www.ask.com/geography/california-texas-larger-938629139ea3b6ac) I was wrong on both counts , population and land mass . :o ---
**Author:** ![katpohl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b782af/32.png) [@katpohl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katpohl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2015, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696/20 "2015-10-07T07:54:52Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Yeah, by “this” I meant this post I quoted, not this whole current thread. My bad, I misunderstood your comment. :o My apologies . When I seen your post ,I figured that was strike 3 for me and this thread. I posted this in general questions and it was moved , I said Texas the largest state . I had searched the archives and hadn’t found anything . [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-textbooks-are-inaccurate-biased-and-politicized/733696.md?page=2)