Ed board dukes it out over details

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The battle has been drawn out for two years, but the State Board of Education is very close now to finally approving new social studies curriculum guidelines that will affect Texas textbooks for the next ten years.

A decision is expected Friday on what exactly will be left in, added, or taken out of social studies books. On Thursday, conservative and liberal board members wrangled over hundreds of amendments. Conservatives seem to be holding sway along a roughly 10-to-5 split.

Among the questions debated: Must you be dead to make the history books? Can a person be considered a patriot AND a bad citizen?

And how old should students be to learn an American hero was hanged?

That was the debate over Nathan Hale, the Colonial patriot hanged by the British as a spy. Some board members feel children younger than fifth grade might become preoccupied with drawing pictures of hangings.

There was much horse trading between the sides, with each agreeing to add the other's historic figures into the curriculum, thus bloating the new history books with hundreds of new names.

Kathy Miller of the liberal Texas Freedom Network observed: "I do think a lot of the coming in and going out was because of politics, instead of what teachers and experts are recommending." 

As for the perceived minutae, board member Barbara Cargill argued: "It does look like micromanaging, but I think we're so dilligent and protective of the kids that we are looking at the words and trying to hash through them but that's part of the process."

A final vote is expected Friday to favor a return to more traditional education, but because of budget contraints, the changes may not appear in school boooks until at least 2012.