April 21, 2003TEXAS TEXTBOOKS AT RISK
HB 1447, which would restore full authority over textbook content to the State Board of Education, is still sitting in the Calendars Committee, waiting to be scheduled for floor debate. 1447 could be scheduled as soon as this week. Please use the information below to write newspaper op-ed editorials, letters to the editor, and letters to state legislators.
Religious Extremists Target Textbooks
Texas textbooks have long been a target for censorship by religious social conservatives, who aim to delete information they disagree with and inject their own political ideology and religious values.
Mainstream Values Targeted
In Texas, a handful of religious extremists have actively lobbied for textbook censorship on a number of issues over the years. Religious Right groups in Texas have tried to censor the following topics, among others:
- Evolution: they lobbied for evolution to be either wholly eliminated from biology textbooks or taught on par with creationism (1993 testimony on file at TEA)
- Human Rights: they testified that history books had an overkill of emphasis on cruelty to slaves & that coverage of slavery, civil rights struggles or discrimination was unpatriotic and anti-Christian (2002 & 1996 testimony filed at TEA)
- Working Women: they tried to censor a picture of a woman carrying a briefcase because women in the workplace undermined traditional family values (1994 testimony on file at TEA)
- Religious Minorities: far-right activists were successful in stripping history texts of positive references to Islam, which they called more propaganda (2002 testimony on file at TEA) 7Racial Minorities: these groups tried to censor books they said went overboard on the number of pictures of minorities included in history texts (1996 testimony on file at TEA)
- Global Warming: they successfully lobbied to ban an environmental science book for its coverage of global warming, which they called anti-free enterprise and anti-Christian (2001 testimony on file at TEA) 7Health Education: far-right groups lobbied to censor a line drawing of the female breast from health textbooks (1994 testimony on file at TEA)
In an effort to make the review process less vulnerable to the ideological whims of extremists on the State Board of Education, the Texas Legislature passed reforms in 1995 that curbed the authority of the Board. Since then, the Boards control over textbook content has been limited to only the criteria for textbook adoption set out in the code: physical specifications, essential knowledge and skills elements, and factual errors (A.G. Opinion No. DM-424).
Despite these legal limitations, in 2001, the Texas State Board of Education banned an environmental science textbook and made sweeping changes to several more that had been criticized by the far right as being too pro-environment, and not supportive enough of capitalism or Christianity. In 2002, far-right groups successfully lobbied publishers and the Board to edit social studies texts based on the narrow religious and political philosophy of these groups. Most testimony criticizing these books was orchestrated by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, Texas Justice Foundation, and the Texas Eagle Forum, all groups affiliated with the extreme Religious Right in Texas.
Texas Textbooks Have National Significance
The outcome of textbook editing and selection in Texas has a national impact, as Texas books often serve as a model for many other states. As the nations second largest textbook consumer, the revenue at stake for textbook publishers in Texas is tremendous. The $570 million Texas expects to spend on books next year offers ample financial incentive for publishers to make revisions demanded by a small, but vocal, group of extremists who have the power to get a book rejected.
The Current Textbook Debate: Biology Textbooks The State Board of Education will review biology textbooks in 2003 and health textbooks in 2004. Testimony will likely be heard by the Board through the summer and early fall, with a final adoption vote taking place in November.
From the Texas Freedom Network.