The Texas State Board of Education is partisan -
10 Republicans and five Democrats. The R's are social conservatives and recently "revised" American history K-12 standards. The revised Texas standards now include the roles of conservative groups: Contract with America, Phyllis Schlafy, The Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association. There is no corresponding mention of moderates like Sen. Ted Kennedy, the American Civil Liberties Union or Greenpeace.
The conservatives also pushed for a reinterpretation of the doctrine of separation of church and state. They claimed the separation of church and state was established in the law by activist judges and not by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. They were successful in including this language in the new state social studies standards, even in face of opposition of Texas social studies teachers and historians.
What hath Texas wrought?
In the new Texas standards, President Ronald Reagan is elevated to a more idealized position in American history. Sen. Joseph McCarthy is portrayed as an anti-communist hero, rather than the bully I witnessed on TV as he conducted his "Un-American hearing inquisitions" and destroyed lives.
The danger of this revisionist application of history is that Texas has long been a leader in the development of national textbooks and standardized test content. We may end up with national textbooks and tests highlighting this ideological nonsense; in the future we will be confronted with trying to correct errors of fact and bad judgment. The Texas Board of Education ignored well informed teachers and historians.
These Texans lament that American history is filled with liberal bias. They are not the only ones. I saw Glenn Beck on his program "Friday with the Founders" displaying names on a chalkboard as though he were a teacher. He's not. Mr. Beck then chastised President Roosevelt as the most hated president in American history. But I remember FDR who was elected four times with 70 percent and 80 percent approval ratings and was beloved by the citizens of our country for saving them from the economic devastation of a Great Depression partly caused by conservative Republican economic policies of the 1920s.
As a matter of interest, the so-called liberal focus of our Constitution is a result of the 18th century Age of Enlightenment (a philosophy which was a causative factor underlying the French and the American revolutions) and which our founders believed encouraged an age of reason, dignity, compassion and self rule.
The founders also fully understood the terror of declaring a state religion and linking it to government. This is what the Texans should have included in their social studies standards - not revisionist balderdash.
• Eugene Paslov is a board member of the Davidson Academy at the University of Nevada, Reno and the former Nevada state superintendent of schools.