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The elected State Board of Education rejected Friday an effort to rewrite its textbook selection rules, after board member Terri Leo (R-Spring) discovered that the new rule would eliminate patriotism from the textbook selection process. The current rules, which would have been elimiated by the rewrite, require the board's textbook review panels to consider whether books foster patriotism and an appreciation for free enterprise in deciding whether to recommend books for adoption.
Board members had intended the rewrite to be a technical cleanup of the board's rules based on the earlier work of a board committee. But Texas Education Agency staff struck from the textbook rules references to Texas Education Code section 28.002(h), which reads as follows: "The State Board of Education and each school district shall foster the continuation of the tradition of teaching United States and Texas history and the free enterprise system in regular subject matter and in reading courses and in the adoption of textbooks. A primary purpose of the public school curriculum is to prepare thoughtful, active citizens who understand the importance of patriotism and can function productively in a free enterprise society with appreciation for the basic democratic values of our state and national heritage."
In 1995, Texas lawmakers rewrote the Texas Education Code. The author of that rewrite, former Sen. Bill Ratliff (R -- Mt. Pleasant) was an opponent of the elected state school board and tried to remove it from the textbook selection process. The handful of Senate conservatives at that time, led by Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville), worked with House conservatives to keep a role for the board in the textbook selection process.
The resulting compromise gave the board a role in picking textbooks but reduced its authority. The reference to textbooks in 28.002(h) was part of that compromise. But former Attorney General Dan Morales undermined that compromise by issuing an attorney general's opinion declaring that 28.002(h) did not confer any additional power on the board to reject a textbook, despite the clear language of the law mentioned above. Texas Education Agency General Counsel David Anderson cited the Morales opinion as the reason for trying to remove the reference to patriotism from the textbook rules.
When Leo found out, she objected. The board scuttled the rewrite and will ask Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott to revisit the issue of whether the education code allows the board to require patriotism and an appreciation for America in Texas textbooks.
