Remember the Houston mom who challenged textbook maker McGraw-Hill? She criticized the company for textbooks that called slaves “workers.”
It seems the State Board of Education hasn’t forgotten.
Thomas Ratliff, a Republican board member, has called for outside academics to review the facts in the board’s chosen textbooks to catch any errors that may have slipped through – like the “workers” language in that passage about slavery.
Will Weissert, head of the the Associated Press’ Austin bureau, has been following the story.
“[Ratliff] also said there’s some other egregious examples of factual errors that have slipped through the board vetting process for textbooks,” Weissert says. “He’d like to have outside experts take a look and try to clear some of those up before they get into classrooms.”
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– What the outside review process would affect as well as what wouldn’t be affected, including curriculum and lesson planning
– Why Texas has an outsize influence on what goes into textbooks nationwide
– How incorporating an outside review could lead to more impartial practices down the road