California Shuns Texas Textbooks

[sonias]

Texas Tribune 3/25/10
TribBlog: California Shuns Texas Textbooks

As news of the State Board of Education's conservative spin on the U.S. history has spread nationwide, a backlash has sprung forth, perhaps predictably, from the liberal mecca of San Francisco.

Having heard of the textbook wars here, California state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat who represents San Francisco and San Mateo counties, says he’s drafting legislation to ensure none of the SBOE’s history curriculum revisions seep into any California textbooks. Having heard of the allegedly huge influence of Texas on the textbook market — one commonly reported but exaggerated (we’ll have more on those exaggerations in a story tomorrow) — Yee wants border protection against red-state ideology.

"The way he looks at it, they’re rewriting history. It’s not accurate; and it’s insulting to a number of our communities of color," said Yee’s chief of staff, Adam Keigwin. "The de-emphasis on civil rights in so many areas — reducing the scope of Latino history, especially in a state like Texas — is just mind-boggling."

Good for them. The more markets that reject the SBOE's revisionist history editing, the better it is for students everywhere.

SBOE Board = failure.

:woohoo:

[onestepforward]

1. Good for California!

I hope many more states reject these "red-state ideology" books too.

[sonias]

2. The Textbook Myth

Texas Tribune 3/26/10
The Textbook Myth

As the furor over the State Board of Education’s ideological rewriting of social studies standards has exploded nationally in recent weeks, a primary narrative has emerged: that whatever 15 politicians in Texas (or at least the rightest-leaning half of them) decide will be published in textbooks nationwide for years to come.

(snip)
But Yee and his liberal-to-moderate contemporaries in other states need not fret, textbook industry experts say. Though Texas has been painted in scores of media reports as the big dog that wags the textbook industry tail, that’s simply no longer true — and will become even less true in the future, as technological advances and political shifts transform the marketplace, said Jay Diskey, executive director of the Association of American Publishers. Diskey calls the persistent reports of Texas dominating the market an "urban myth." Yet the myth persists.

"I’ve been in this job about three and a half years, and I see it reported all the time," Diskey said. "I give my explanation to reporters, and about half of them believe me and half of them don’t."

Rather than tailoring history books to Texas, then trying to peddle them nationwide, publishers today will start with a core national narrative and edit to suit the sensitivities and curriculum standards of various states and districts, said David Anderson, an industry lobbyist, former publishing sales executive and Texas Education Agency curriculum director. The irony in the current history wars: The more the state board makes a political circus out of the process, the less likely any of its ideology will seep into books for other states, as the California backlash makes clear.

"The core narrative is very similar" nationally, Anderson said. "If you can customize a book for Texas, and un-customize it for the Midwest — and Texas is controversial — then that’s what you’re going to do."

I'll have to say that I certainly believed the myth. I'm happy to see that the SBOE being revisionist historians does not impact the whole textbook market!

:bounce::bounce::bounce:

We still have to get rid of the SBOE conservative kooks for the sake of Texas children! :mad: