Texas Insider

By Jake Negovan

A Lesson Learned

Liberals, and especially minority groups, are up in arms as rumors that Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) Chair Gail Lowe is going to yank the likes of Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall out of the state’s text books educating a fast-growing minority public school population.  They’re terrified that she is a conservative, and feels our Founding Fathers intended for our country to be guided by certain principles, thus making it acceptable to use those principles to shape the education of American school children.

RedBrownandBlue.com dove into numerous drafts of proposed changes to Texas public school courses, and found something odd: the opposite.  Did I mention I’m a liberal?

Which raises the possibility … that liberals might be perpetuating half-truths to alarm the public. In the end, “it only reflects poorly on their point of view, but causes an immediate disconnect with the party you’re trying to persuade,” he writes.

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about the Texas State Board of Education, new Board Commissioner Gail Lowe, and the revision of Texas Essential Knowledge Skills.  But should they be so scared?

Many of us in the Lone Star State are well-aware of attempts by Lowe’s predecessor to shape science texts towards fundamentalist Christian beliefs.  The fact that the state’s Social Studies curriculum would be under review by the Board and Governor Perry’s newly-appointed commissioner was reported almost from the moment Gail Lowe took her seat. 

Reasonable pessimism from the liberal-minded among us began about a half second later.

Most of the stories circulating concern the fact that Lowe is a conservative Christian and she feels our Founding Fathers intended for our country to be guided by Christian principles, thus making it acceptable to use those principles to shape the education of American school children.  Like most of the things regarding the country’s Founding Fathers, it is debatable whether a Christian nation was their intention, and statements can be cherry-picked from each of them to support either side of the argument. 

I read several of the published criticisms of the Texas State Board of Education.  I became concerned with some of the changes that were being considered which seemed to defy reason in favor of promoting a conservative political agenda. 

I wanted to help publicize this revisionist agenda and call people to action against the subversion of public education.  Before sitting down to type, though, I took an important step.  Rather than regurgitate information that had come to me through secondary sources, I found the drafts of proposed revisions to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, annotated with commentary from members of the board.

What I found actually came as a surprise. 

Looking at the proposed changes for Social Studies, U.S. Government, and several other courses, I discovered that the proposed changes in these drafts overwhelmingly support a broad and multicultural point of view in public education.  Despite reports to the contrary, Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall are not being eliminated in favor of Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh. 

Many, many historical figures are being proposed as additions to the curriculum (including Chavez and Reagan) that were not previously specified as part of the required teachings. 

The majority of the controversy surrounds opinions made by one or two board members (or panelists appointed by those members) on the significance of particular figures, or the balance of “liberal” figures against “conservative” figures. 

This brings me back to the Founders.

The process underway in Texas to shape the education of our children is reflective of the Founder’s vision of American legislature.  They knew that a consensus would be rare, so they created a government in which debate could be used to sway opinion, and the opinion held by the majority would emerge victorious.  Checks and balances would be in place, though, to protect against tyranny by the majority.  

Americans seem to have forgotten that this is the way the system works. 

The education delivered to our students is done so with the guidance of a Board elected by the majority.  Those opposed to the Board must accept that their only legitimate recourse lies in voting that Board out of office in the next election, not in perpetuating half-truths to an alarmed public.

It is important to the core concepts of our government that we hold our elected officials accountable.  We must make clear before and after they are elected what we want them to do on our behalf. 

This is true right now in Texas as the Board decides the things teachers will talk about with our children, and it’s important nationally as our lawmakers decide how to change the health care system.  Equally important is remembering that decisions will favor the majority, and as a member of the minority, one must maintain a rational opposition. 

Extreme vitriol not only reflects poorly on your point of view, but causes an immediate disconnect with the party you’re trying to persuade.  We have all been guilty of it at some point.

The Texas Board of Education is accepting informal feedback on TEKS proposals through October 9.  You can go here to find the annotated drafts, the contact information, and the appropriate procedure for submitting commentary. 

Shouts of “you lie” are not considered valid.

Jake Negovan is a Editorial Board Member & Columnist for www.redbrownandblue.com