Texas schoolbook fight heats up

(BBC): Tempers are flaring in Texas over controversial proposed changes to the US state’s public school curriculum. The changes, put forward by the Board of Education’s conservative members, include referring to the slave trade as the "Atlantic triangular trade". Critics say the changes are ideological and distort history, but proponents argue they are correcting a long-standing liberal bias in education. The conservatives are expected to prevail in Friday’s final vote. The changes eliciting the most concern include diminishing the role Thomas Jefferson – principal author of the Declaration of Independence – in history courses because of his belief in the separation of church and state, and dropping references to a landmark court case that barred schools from segregating Mexican American students.

Go to article