SAN ANTONIO – Pop quiz: Does the school curriculum adopted in Texas really wind up in textbooks nationwide? If you answered yes, you might get a failing grade.
As the second-largest purchaser of textbooks behind California, the Lone Star State has historically wielded enormous clout in deciding what material appears in classrooms across the country. That’s why the state school board’s recent decision to adopt new social studies standards was closely watched far beyond Texas.
Critics feared the new, more conservative curriculum in Texas would spread elsewhere. But publishing experts say those concerns are overblown.
“It’s easier nowadays to create one edition for one situation and a different edition for another situation,” said Bob Resnick, founder of Education Market Research, based in New York. “I don’t believe the Texas curriculum will spread anyplace else.”
After months of discussion, the Texas Board of Education last week approved placing greater emphasis on the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers and teaching schoolchildren that the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Constitution.
In Washington, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the process a case of politicians deciding curriculum. California lawmakers went a step further, proposing that education officials there comb through textbooks to ensure that Texas material isn’t twisting the history curriculum.
This year, as states weigh which textbooks to buy, many “are going to be asking whether this was the book that went to Texas,” said Kathy Mickey, an analyst at Simba Information, a market research firm.
