Texas history books under fire

AUSTIN (KXAN) - According to a group of education specialists, Texas history books do not adequately tell the story of Tejano and Native American groups and how they helped build the state in proposed guidelines for social studies in Texas.

The group of lawmakers and school board members met Wednesday morning at the Texas Education Association, calling for the State Board of Education to allow Texas' true history to be taught in classrooms.

The board is currently rewriting the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills test for social studies. The petitioning group wants additional information in the history books about these minority groups.

"The excuse was that the authors and editors were from the northern part of the United States and they did not have sufficient knowledge of Texas or the southern part of the United States," said Mary Helen Berlanga with the State Board of Education. "There's no excuse now. There are many books available, documentation and even maps from the Texas Land Commission."

State Senator Leticia Van de Putte supports the idea and spoke on behalf of those fighting for the history corrections.

"From Lorenzo De Zavala to Henry B. Gonzalez to Cesar Chavez, Hispanics have made many noteworthy contributions to the rich fabric of American history," said Sen. Van de Putte in a statement on Wednesday. "Retelling our national history without including their stories is like writing a book report without reading the book. While many of these figures are in the TEKS recommendations, many more are only encouraged to be used as examples in our Texas classrooms. At a time when the majority of Texas first-graders are Hispanic, I strongly urge the SBOE to ensure that our history books reflect the diversity of our classrooms."

State Rep. Norma Chavez was also outraged by the absence of Tejano historical figures in textbooks.

Under the new recommendations, "Cesar Chavez is not included as 'required to be taught' in fifth-grade, but is listed only as what 'may be taught to fifth-graders,'" noted Rep. Chavez. "There are 23 required historical figures for fifth-graders to learn, but none of them are Latino."