Board wants control over textbooks

The State Board of Education was once able to directly control the language and content of textbooks, but then-Attorney General Dan Morales cut that power in 1996 saying that the SBOE had no right to regulate school textbooks. But The Quorum Report claims that SBOE member Terri Leo got Rep. Charlie Howard (R-Sugar Land) to file HB 220, which is trying to be passed off as one that simply fact-checks textbooks. HB 220 calls into question what the state of addressing ideas like creationism and sex education will be.

In the past year, creationism and sex ed. have made headlines since some parents would like creationism to be taught simultaneously with Darwin's theory of evolution, and they want abstinence-only textbooks. If I remember correctly, last summer parents wanted textbooks that said that if you get AIDS from having sex, just wait it out; it'll go away. Hmmm...the SBOE has already authorized the purchase of new health textbooks that exclusively promote abstinence (according to Planned Parenthood), so I don't know if kids ought to be taught that diseases that have caused pandemics just "go away," as well as anything else that the SBOE may authorize.