Since 1917, when state law authorized the board, which is often staffed by non-educators, to purchase all public school textbooks, it has maintained control of Texas’ public school curriculum. Lundstrom of the Tribune reports the board’s standards have turned into a battleground for conservatives and liberals over what students should be taught.

…The new curriculum still lists only one cause for the extremely fraught Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it cuts out many historical figures, including Francis Scott Key, who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner, African-American poet Phillis Wheatley, as well as several Confederate leaders. Under pressure, the board voted to keep Helen Keller and Hillary Clinton on a list of notable Americans that could be included in lessons, though Oprah Winfrey, Barry Goldwater and astronaut Ellen Ochoa got the nix. The board also voted to keep in a specific description of the defenders of the Alamo as “heroic.”

…Texas represents one-tenth of grade school and high school students in the U.S., and the textbooks written to Texas standards [are used in several] other states as well.

Texas Will Finally Teach That Slavery Was Main Cause of the Civil War | Smart News | Smithsonian

hmmmm