News Roundup: State Education Board Votes 12-2 To Keep Hillary Clinton In Social Studies Curriculum

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelNovember 14, 2018 2:01 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

The State Board of Education will keep Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller and several other historical figures in the Texas social studies curriculum.

That decision was made near the end of a 10-hour meeting Tuesday. It’s a reversal for the board who had removed them several months ago. But this week the partisan, 15-member body is reviewing and finalizing changes to these curriculum standards.

Board member Erika Beltran, a Fort Worth Democrat, proposed adding Clinton back into the curriculum after facing public outcry.

“To the points around getting lots of public comment, to the points around getting negative press, I got a ton of calls and emails about the removal of Hillary Clinton, and so my recommendation is to reinsert Hillary Clinton,” Beltran said.

Republican Marty Rowley of Amarillo said he didn’t agree with Clinton’s politics but that she should be in the curriculum.

“The student expectation is to evaluate the contributions of significant political leaders. I have to give credit where credit is due she is a significant political leader,” Rowley said.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the vote to add Clinton back into the curriculum standards was 12-2. Clinton, a former First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State, and first female presidential nominee from a major political party, was coincidentally in Austin last night where she was being honored for public service.




A rare condition that’s been compared to polio continues to puzzle health investigators– and there are several cases here in Texas.

Houston Public Media’s Davis Land has the latest on the condition.

The CDC says they’re still not sure exactly what causes acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, which typically starts out looking like a respiratory infection before patients feel weak in their arms and legs and eventually become paralyzed.

They’ve expanded their scope looking towards autoimmune diseases as an explanation, but even then, they’re not sure.

In Texas, there’ve been a total of 17 confirmed cases so far this year. two of those are in Galveston and Harris Counties, two more in Travis County, but many more, the majority of confirmed cases in the state, are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.




Members of the Texas House heard hours of testimony Tuesday on a number of issues related to the state’s foster care system.

One of those issues was children aging out of care. These are young people who were not reunited with their families or placed in permanent homes through adoption, for example.

Cindy Sparacino is the transitional housing director for the faith-based nonprofit, Angel Reach in Conroe, near Houston. She offered the House Human Services Committee several suggestions for how to help teenagers transition out of the foster care system during the Tuesday hearing.

“It is imperative that a safe and secure living arrangement is secured long before these kids turn 18 – they need to know where they’re going to live and what is expected of them when they get there,” Sparacino says.

A new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds children who are 16 years or older in Texas foster care are more likely to age out of care or be emancipated than their peers nationwide.