War on Christmas Moves to Texas State Board of Education

War on Christmas Moves to Texas State Board of Education: Proposed Social Studies Changes Prefer Diwali Over Christmas

AUSTIN, Texas – Next week, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), fresh off of a decision on science standards, will meet to hear from education experts and curriculum review committee members who will present proposed changes to the social studies, history and government curriculum. Free Market Foundation, the organization that led the successful efforts on science standards and Bible curriculum before the SBOE, will be on hand at the SBOE meeting to monitor the testimony and discussion which will have a major impact on the future of such curriculum in Texas and many other states as well.

“Liberal activists who seek to revise history and distort the greatness or our country and state should not succeed in Texas. Texas is a common sense, consevative  state,” said Kelly Shackelford, President/CEO of Free Market Foundation.

Of particular concern already is that the curriculum review committee’s draft of proposed changes includes removing “Christmas” from the current law and replacing it with the study of Diwali, in a section where students are to “explain the significance of religious holiday and observances such as…”

“It’s outrageous that the war on Christmas continues in our state and in our nation. This effort to mislead students about current society is shameful and must be stopped,” said Jonathan Saenz, Director of Legislative Affairs, who has testified numerous times before the SBOE and regularly provides legal and policy recommendations to the SBOE. The SBOE meets again to discuss the social science standards on November 18-20, and will vote on final standards in early 2010. The standards will remain in place for ten years.

 For more information or to schedule an interview, please call or email Jennifer Grisham, director of media, at (972) 423-8889 extension 102, [email protected], or (512) 879-7995.

Thankfully this time around, the review committee made their revisions based on the current Texas TEKS standards, instead of their earlier effort, to start from scratch and use the Texas Council for Social Studies’ recommendations as a starting point.

Also, see this eye-opening article about the behind the scenes details of the review committees that are in charge of submitting changes to current curriculum requirements. http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=15016

Also click here for early liberal efforts of these review committeess that were thankfully derailed. http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=8341

Notable Historic Figures Removed from proposed new TEKS:

Daniel Boone, Albert Einstein, Louis Pastuer, Neil Armstrong, Christopher Columbus (now only mentioned once, down from current 4 references).