Texas Board of Education Vote Incorporates New Standards
Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 9:37AM Nothing aggravates liberals like conservative ideals being incorporated into school text books. After all, the Left has spent 45 years stripping bare the legitimate history of the United States. What follows is an incredibly biased story from the AP about the vote and its impact with comments from FL Pundit:
African-American holding protest sign at Tea Party rally.A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.
Not conservatives on the Board of Education, but a "far-right faction". Sounds much more menacing doesn't it?
Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
"We have been about conservatism versus liberalism," said Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the standards. "We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be in the document, regardless as to whether or not it's appropriate."
I saw liberal Mavis Knight interviewed twice this week about the debate. She couldn't have been less credible if she tried. She's a cross between Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters. A fool.
Following three days of impassioned and acrimonious debate, the board gave preliminary approval to the new standards with a 10-5 party line vote. A final vote is expected in May, after a public comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.
I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought it was a far-right faction of the Texas School Board that passed these new standards. Now you tell me it was 10 - 5 vote on party line? Based on that, it would seem to me the first paragraph of the story is just a bit over-the-top.
Decisions by the board — made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others — can affect textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers' biggest clients.
Ultraconservatives wielded their power over hundreds of subjects this week, introducing and rejecting amendments on everything from the civil rights movement to global politics. Hostilities flared and prompted a walkout Thursday by one of the board's most prominent Democrats, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, who accused her colleagues of "whitewashing" curriculum standards.
No surprise here, the liberals were getting their heads kicked in by the conservatives who out numbered them two to one. What to do? I know - play the race card! That'll show those evil "ultraconservatives"!
By late Thursday night, three other Democrats seemed to sense their futility and left, leaving Republicans to easily push through amendments heralding "American exceptionalism" and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.
"Some board members themselves acknowledged this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just about every decision," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom.
Since the AP is on the side of the losers, here they attempt to discredit the entire process. Another standard liberal play. I'm guessing the "system" wouldn't have been broken if the Left had pushed through all of their agenda items.
Republican Terri Leo, a member of the powerful Christian conservative voting bloc, called the standards "world class" and "exceptional."
Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).
In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.
Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.
That should be all the proof anyone needs about the credibility of the Left in this debate.
Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockettand Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society."
Democrats did score a victory by deleting a portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."
Fort Worth Republican Pat Hardy, a longtime teacher, voted for the new standards, but said she wished the board could work with a more cooperative spirit.
The Left doesn't work in a cooperative spirit. You give them everything they want or you're a bigot and a racist. It's not complicated.
"What we've done is we've taken a document that by nature is too long to begin with and then we've lengthened it some more," Hardy said, shortly after the vote. "Those long lists of names that we've put in there ... it's just too long.
"I just think we failed to keep that in mind, it's hard for teachers to get through it all."
This story is a great example of liberal bias in the press. It is one-sided through and through. If you're not engaged in the process and read this article, you'd think the vote by the Texas Board of Education was one of the worst decisions in education history.
Propaganda is alive and well!
Click Here to see Liberals on the hot seat.
Reader Comments (8)
I'm shocked! Shocked!!
Omitting hip-hop from the curriculum will leave our children unprepared when (if) they graduate and become part of the U.S. workforce to compete in global marketplace.
What a freaking joke. This is so one-sided as to be comical. Journalism has been dead for years, but it seems to die additional deaths on a weekly basis. This story was absolutely pathetic and the author(s) should (but won't) be fired for malfeasance.
One additional comment. May I suggest an addition to the curriculum?
Each student must like be required to like compose a paragraph with like five or six sentences with like no occurrances of the word "like". Like that would be totally awsome.
I encourage my fellow commenters to offer other curriculum requirements.
Excellent incorporations Bruce. On a serious note, I'd suggest kids learn the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution inside out. Part of that is learning how God and religion steered their decisions.
This article is a classic example of the twisted and deceitful tactics the MSM uses to turn public opinion against an issue that likely 75% of Americans would support if they knew the facts. However, most only know what the press tells them, and this article will turn opinion against the curriculum approved by conservatives.
Thoughts?
A very nice job FL Pundit. Great example of how to really read your newspaper.
Conservative members of Texas School Board: GOD BLESS YOU. What courage!
Monte Hall: How right you are, but by showing their liberal bias, newspapers are only quickening their demise. The Obama administration and his groupies in the media are helping to change the culture in this country, to the right, more than conservatives are. We just have to seize the opportunity they are giving us.
Bruce: I mean..like dude..you know..I mean..like this is..like you know..like my vocabulary dude.
Apple Jacks: I agree they should be fired, but as I said to Monte, they are actually firing themselves by writing garbage that folks are beginning to see for what it is.
Great points HB. I can't disagree that they are doing more harm to themselves than to the conservative cause.
Guys there comes a time when we have to pick up the mantle of hope and teach those we
cherise in life to a real understanding of our world and how it was founded... what God's
will is for all and to understand his purpose for our great nation and his people....I have to
admit that my grandchildren are not being tought what my children and myself had the
privilege to learn in school...Our academie have failed Our children...Shameful as it is our
education system will only get dumbed down more by this clown and his administration....
To the Texas School Board, thank you and "Long live Texas."
our edumacators claim to want to teach our kids how to think, then procede to indoctinate them on what to think. we are the professionals you know-then we should be able to sue them for mal-teacher. how would you like to see a doctor granted tenure??