“Whoever defines the word defines the world.”
--John Locke

By Terri Leo

Texas families expect the state to ensure that quality textbooks are a vital part of our children’s educations. For most of the past decade, however, the State Board of Education has been stymied in its ability to set responsible standards for the textbooks that the Board is required by law to adopt.

Without SBOE authority to establish general textbook content standards, books with viewpoint discrimination, bias, a negative portrayal of the free enterprise system and U.S. citizenship, and extremely objectionable or inappropriate content can be and have been approved. As a result, books may be adopted which are in violation of the spirit and intent of the Legislature’s wishes as set forth in state law.

The problem comes from what many education leaders believe to be a faulty interpretation of legislation revising the election code in 1995. Then-Attorney General Dan Morales opined that the Texas Education Code does not allow the SBOE to reject a book that includes group stereotyping, blatantly offensive language or illustrations, or sensational violence. The ruling in effect removed the general textbook content standards from state statutes and denied the SBOE power to eliminate certain books that many members believed to be unfit for use in our schools. From 1969 until their elimination in 1995, the SBOE had authority over textbooks with rules adopted by both Republicans and Democrats that allowed them to reject books that violated these standards. The SBOE is now told by the Texas Education Agency and liberal leaning groups with agendas that the content of books does not matter, rather only whether or not a book meets the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS). Without SBOE authority to establish general textbook contents standards, editors and publishers are unaccountable and allowed to pursue personal agendas. When the final decisions on textbook content are made by unelected bureaucrats instead of elected Board members representing local citizens, editors can ignore Texas values of decency, fairness, accuracy and common sense.

This shift in policy has resulted in many disastrous results. One book approved in Texas, for example, was the subject of national ridicule and condemned on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV). Dubbed the “Texas rain-forest algebra book,” it received an “F” grade on a report card produced by Mathematically Correct, a group of independent math scholars who reviewed math books adopted in Texas. The book watered down algebra by including such things as chili recipes, ancient myths, a photograph of Maya Angelou and Bill Clinton (this was supposed to demonstrate parallelism in sentence structure), and asking students what roles zoos play in society. No algebra is even mentioned until page 100. The publisher states that the algebra book’s focus is to “get students to communicate their thinking about problem solving and to work on different approaches, rather than focusing on getting the right answers”. The book says the teacher’s role “is to be a facilitator who supports students. Questions should be posed to stimulate thought rather than get an answer.” Under the previous system, the SBOE was able to insist that publishers correct outrageous and offensive content. Without SBOE content standards, political agendas masquerading as science have been smuggled into classrooms. Books marred with inaccuracies, omissions and errors have been approved as well.

Teachers depend on sound textbooks to guide classroom instruction. Research shows that student learning and high achievement is directly related to quality textbooks. Texans want textbooks that not only meet TEKS criteria but that meet the quality standards that parents expect and students deserve. House Bill 1447 would do just that. The measure, joint authored by State Representatives Charlie Howard, Talmadge Heflin, Jerry Madden and Robert Talton and co-authored by 40 other State Representatives, has been approved by the Public Education Committee for debate by the full House. It would essentially clarify the SBOE’s authority to determine textbook content standards as the people of Texas elected us to do and the Legislature mandated that we do.

"Words are the most powerful drugs used by mankind," said Rudyard Kipling. Content is the most important part of a good textbook.

Terri Leo is a member of the State Board of Education. She lives in Houston and represents District 6.