Texas two-step

Should we be worried about the Texas Textbook Massacre? In case you haven’t heard, the state of Texas has stacked the deck in writing the textbook standards in the state. Thomas Jefferson’s Enlightenment ideas are too “liburel” for Texas. They are also making sure that the contributions of minorities are marginalized or ignored. Is any of this surprising? Hardly. To be honest, my opinion of the “Great” state of Texas couldn’t be much lower. This is state that probably spends more on executing it’s citizens than educating them. (hyperbole warning: not an actual statistic.) As the New York times summed it up:

There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.

Given the general anti-intellectualism of the far right these days, it comes as no surprise that politics is driving most of the decisions, not scholarship.

Why does this matter if you don’t live in Texas? Because Texas and California combine to be by far the largest buyers of textbooks. The textbook makers have generally had to have their books pass the standards of those states, or it wouldn’t be profitable to print the books. This is how Texas standards of education become your standards. Given that Texas graduates 61% of it’s student from high school (of those who enter 9th grade) which is puts it 43rd in the nation, it’s entirely possible that you don’t want your standards to be influenced by people who “held themselves out as experts on certain topics.” Maybe those same experts could turn their expertise on helping Texas’ struggling schools?

I believe that there is hope on the horizon, however. I’ve long given up hope that it is possible to change the mind-numbingly obtuse political and cultural climate of Texas. What does bring some hope is technology. I believe that higher tech publishing methods will allow publishers to tailor their textbooks to different states. Texas won’t hold sway over everyone’s children anymore. Sadly, Texas will still be churning out uniformed young adults, but that hasn’t slowed them down in the past.