SAN ANTONIO — The Texas Board of Education will be making a final vote on changes to the social studies curriculum, in a move that could influence what is published in Texas textbooks, and potentially other states.
The goal is to eliminate topics to help teachers who say there's too much material to cover, but some critics are arguing the subject matter on the chopping block represents key figures from history. They include Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller.
The board voted to restore those lessons and to keep instruction about how Moses influenced the nation's Founding Fathers and the ways states' rights helped cause the Civil War.
"We made recommendations to the State Board of Education that there's just this lack of representation," said Juan Tejeda, a retired professor for Palo Alto College. "In fact, more women and people of color needed to be included and, really in a lot of ways, we were primarily ignored again."
Tejeda spearheaded the successful fight to get Mexican-American studies offered as an elective course in high schools, which goes into effect in 2019. She said it was a five-year effort.
"That was an important victory first time that any American-Mexican studies or ethnic studies course is approved by state board of education," Tejeda said.
He said he believes while restoring the lessons about female political figures was a step in the right direction, with a Republican-dominated board the curriculum will essentially stay the same.
"While we've made the argument that there needs to be more inclusion of women and other ethnic groups to be truly representative, I'm afraid the elected board, our representatives and the majority are more satisfied with keeping the status quo," Tejeda said.
The board can still make changes before the final vote, scheduled for Friday.