Static boss Gayle Reaves blogged a few days back about the latest round of antics from that clown school called the State Board of Education. But honestly, folks, the opportunities for rage and ridicule are far from exhausted here. Please read carefully, then get out your No. 2 pencils or tiny electronic paraphernalia, and let other folks know that, in Austin, the sideshow goes on – unfortunately, with Texas school kids as a captive audience.
The education board has been a font of controversy for decades in this state, particularly in the last couple of years, as social conservatives increased their power on the board and made it into an arena for fighting over things like teaching evolution versus creationism.
But the circus officially graduated to three rings last week. As reported by The Dallas Morning News and other sources, two right-wing members of a panel advising the education board on social studies curriculum recommended that civil rights leaders César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall be downgraded in status in Texas social studies classes.
According to the News, evangelical minister Peter Marshall of Massachusetts (why the board had to go up north to find a radical-right minister is a mystery) said it was “ludicrous” to list internationally recognized labor leader Chávez next to Ben Franklin. His conservative Texas colleague, David Barton of Aledo, wrote that Chavez “lacks the stature” of other major figures in U.S. history. The News also reported that Peter Marshall said Thurgood Marshall, America’s first black Supreme Court justice and the lawyer who argued the case that ended racial segregation of this country’s schools “is not a strong enough example” to be presented to schoolchildren as an important historical figure.
The panel also made other potentially inflammatory (and equally ridiculous) recommendations. Barton, the News‘ Terrence Stutz reported, wants social studies books to refer to “republican” rather than “democratic” values in this country because this is a republic, not a pure democracy.
Reaves sent the story to Fort Worth City Council member Sal Espino and retired judge Maryellen Hicks and asked for their comments. The return calls arrived in record time, and with considerable heat.
“I can’t believe how anyone in good conscience could argue that,” Espino said. “Thurgood Marshall was responsible for one of the most important decisions in American jurisprudence. … César Chávez fought for equality and fair treatment – he’s an inspiration to countless Hispanic schoolchildren, to children around the world.
“When I saw that article it clicked a very strong button in me,” he said. “My goodness, it just upset me.” He kept saying, “My goodness,” though Static suspects other language may have been going through his head.
Hicks, a retired state district and appellate court judge in Fort Worth, said the story left her “totally amazed at the ignorance of certain people” – and appalled.
“Having met both those great Americans in my lifetime, if anybody belongs in history books it is certainly those two magnificent men,” she said. “For me it says we haven’t come as far as we think we have. We may have elected an African-American as president, but so what – we have a long way to go.”
“I really think there ought to be some sort of protest” of the recommendations, she said. Perhaps by all the students and former students who, through the years, have attended the dozens of schools around this country named for Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.
