Texas Social Studies Standards

As you know, Texas is conducting a controversial re-write of their social studies standards. This gained notice because a very conservative cluster of school board officials basically hijacked the Board and began pushing through really objectionable stuff. Here's a summary. Because publishers historically have written their high school materials for Texas and then adapted them for other states, this raised concerns that kids nationwide would be using conservatively biased textbooks. This has so alarmed people that legislators in California proposed a bill barring any Texas standards from California schools. Heck, this whole brouhaha even made the Daily Show.

Well, I'm here to offer an publisher industry insider update on this whole mess. The executive summary is: let's all take a deep breath and wait a bit. The TX Board did finally approve amendments to their standards but because they created such a stir they had to roll back some of their more egregious changes. So, while there is a standard calling for a look at the Constitution and Bill of Rights for the lack of the phrase "separation of church and state," Thomas Jefferson wasn't pulled from the standards. Also, they may be re-re-visited. Three of the most conservative members are lame ducks and the incoming folks have pledged to re-open this debate--something they can legally do when they take office in January. And, the state legislature has threatened to refuse funding for the textbook adoption with these standards.

And, as always, it comes down to that funding. Across the country, school districts are facing massive budget crunches and are trying to reallocate money set aside for textbooks and materials, controversial or not, to payroll to keep teachers. Texas has already postponed their science adoption because of budget issues. If science is delayed, you know social studies will be. In the end, it could all be much ado about nothing.

Obama Finds Another Gear

Yesterday Congress passed another of Obama's reforms: a fix to the federal student loan program that cuts out the private bank middlemen. That simple step will save taxpayers an estimated $61 billion over ten years.

Earlier this week, news started filtering out that Obama's also on the cusp of signing a major nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia. Obviously, this could fail to materialize as many proposed treaties do, but if it comes through Obama will add a major foreign policy coup to his record.

It seems as though the health care break through has given Obama and the Dems incredible momentum. Hopefully they'll keep their stride well through November.

The Skinny on Vouchers

We talked about vouchers last night after McCain defended them so loudly. I stated that voucher programs have largely failed, but didn't have the specifics at my fingertips to illustrate the point. Thankfully, the Washington Monthly reposted a link to their interesting article about the gleam coming off vouchers' rose.

As I remembered, vouchers have failed to improve students performances--even in the DC program that McCain touted and the famous Milwaukee case (you can read why in the Washington Monthly article). Furthermore (and this is good for us) vouchers are wildly unpopular outside of cities. They've been voted down in several states--including Indiana where rural folks took offense at officials impugning their local public schools largely because they so identify with their high school basketball teams. But, the larger anti-voucher response has come from suburban parents who have blocked any voucher attempts lest poor kids end up in their kids' schools.

So, by hyping vouchers, McCain probably did himself harm. Just another case of him being out of touch with the real world.