Right-wing Republicans won an important battle in the "history wars" on March 12 when the Texas Board of Education approved a new social studies curriculum.
History and economics textbooks will have to be rewritten to stress the superiority of US capitalism, eliminating references to the separation of church and state and presenting right-wing political philosophies more positively while eliminating references to alternatives.
The decision will have to be ratified in May. The vote will have nation-wide ramifications because the huge Texas market will influence publishers.
The curriculum changes will affect teaching from kindergarten to high school with certain recurring themes. Among the conservatives' ideas are opposition to Darwin's theory of evolution and to the idea that the American Revolution was a product of the Enlightenment.
"We are adding balance", Don McLeroy, leader of the board's conservative faction, told the March 12 New York Times. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left."
Mary Helen Berlanga, a Hispanic board member told the NYT: "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don't exist. They are going overboard … They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world."
The board cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired 18th century and 19th century revolutions, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. The conservatives dislike Jefferson because he coined the term "separation between church and state."
The inaugural address of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate slaveholders' rebellion that led to the Civil War, will now be studied alongside Abraham Lincoln's speeches.
The new curriculum ensures students will learn about "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association."
The March 19 Nation reported: "Kindergarden students will no longer have to learn about 'people' who have contributed to American life, only about 'patriots and good citizens'."
The "free-enterprise system" has been inserted to replace all references to "capitalism" in economics texts. "Let's face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation", Terri Leo, a conservative board member told the NYT. "You know, 'capitalist pig!'"