Texas Board of Ed. Could Delay Vote

For nearly two months, media outlets and organizations have covered the controversial and drastic proposals made by the Texas Board of Education to the social studies curriculum, which is expected to pass on May 21st. There is now a possibility that the Board of Education may delay the vote.

Knowing that Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks in the country, so publishing companies tend to tailor their textbooks to fit within the curriculum guidelines proposed, the proposed curriculum changes have caused alarm. Many see some of the hundreds of proposals made by the Texas Board of Education as biased, such as the Board’s decision to replace the term “capitalism” with the term “free-enterprise,” removing the term Democracy or Democratic to describe our system of government and replace it with Constitutional Republic, adding a section to promote “American Exceptionalism” and ask students to identify how “American values are different and unique from those of other nations,” and describing Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee as “heroes.” So radical are the proposed amendments that the Associated Press stated that the Texas Board of Education is led by a “far-right faction.”

But the topic most focused on was the removal of Thomas Jefferson. On March 19th, the Texas Board of Education released a statement in regards to the Thomas Jefferson claim.

“Some media outlets erroneously reported the State Board of Education was dropping Thomas Jefferson from the curriculum frameworks,” reads the statement. “Although Jefferson has been listed in a World History standard, the board removed his name from a list of European Enlightenment philosophers that included John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu and Jean Jacques Rousseau.”

Gail Lowe, the chair of the Texas Board of Education, states “Jefferson was not himself an Enlightenment philosopher, although he was heavily influenced by the writings of these individuals. But to say the State board of Education has removed him from the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) is inaccurate and irresponsible.”

However, the Texas Board of Education has not told the whole story. The original text read “explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present.” It is true that the board voted to remove Jefferson from this section. But in his place, they added Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone.

The New York Times reported that the board “managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century.” While this is as close to reality as the media has gotten to regarding the Jefferson section, even the New York Times missed a key point.

Thomas Jefferson was not just removed from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century. The original language specifically asked students to explain the impact of “Enlightenment ideas,” so the New York Times, and subsequently numerous media outlets, got the story slightly wrong.

But further study reveals why this may have happened and spread. The board did not just remove Jefferson from the section on the Enlightenment. They removed the Enlightenment. The section now reads “explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone,” making the section vague as to its intent.

In regards to Thomas Jefferson’s role in the Enlightenment period, board member Don McLeroy, a self described “fundamentalist Christian” and “young-earth Creationist” with a lively and engaging personality stated “When I looked it up afterwords, in the controversy over that, I kind of favored putting Jefferson back in.”

But when asked why they removed the term Enlightenment, McLeroy changed tone. “We added Thomas Aquinas, you would have to take him out of the enlightenment. I don’t know that William Blackstone and John Calvin were included as enlightenment thinkers, so that’s the reason the term was taken out.”

This action like many others appear to be politically charged. Republican board member, Bob Craig, stated “there are those on the board who wish to promote their own personal political biases on the curriculum standards.” He continued “At the end of the day, if based on my overview of all the input I have received, especially from teachers, if its not what I would consider to be accurate then I am not going to be for it.”

Two other Republicans on the Board of Education, Geraldine Miller and Pat Hardy, are also showing signs that they may decide to delay the vote. If all three Republican board members vote to delay, it will be just enough to stop the curriculum from passing.

But even Dr. McLeroy, considered the most radically right leaning member on the Board of Education, has begun to change his mind based on input. After an in depth discussion about the proposed curriculum, Dr. McLeroy agreed that some points were in fact biased and should be changed. Some of these included changing a section in the curriculum in which Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee are described as heroes as well as referring to the pledge of allegiance as a student “responsibility.”

However, many are calling on the board to not just change some of the standards, but to delay the vote completely, due to the lack of knowledge that some of the board members expressed about their own curriculum. When Dr. McLeroy had the “heroes” section and pledge of allegiance section mentioned to him, he responded “I don’t know why that’s in there. I wasn’t involved in that.” He continued “We’ve had so many things that we have talked about. I just have no idea.”