Over 100 proposed textbooks of various subjects including history, social studies, geography and government textbooks will be poised for vote by the Texas Board of Education on Tuesday.
The publishers have submitted for approval these textbooks, proposing a new curriculum to use in classrooms statewide.
But the proposed curriculum has ignited severe controversy within Texas as it is being claimed to be biased and politically motivated.
Owing to the fact that Texas serves as a large textbook market, the thinkers and experts are opposing the ‘politically motivated’ content of the school books, saying it would heavily affect the students way of learning about the country’s history and scientific facts.
The academicians and activists on the right and left find the proposed textbooks controversial, saying they offer ideology over facts.
One of the university professors in Texas said that some of the proposed textbooks have so much exaggeration of Moses’ influence on the US democracy that the students will grow up learning that the biblical figure ‘was the first American’. On the other hand, some of them also complained of over praising the topics related capitalism, sugarcoating historical racial segregation and also unfairly portrayed the Hispanics, American Indians and Muslims.
Some also complains about too much mentioning of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The proposed textbooks are set by the Republican-controlled Board of Education four years ago.
Texas is the second-most populous state in the US and has five million-plus public school students.
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