Texas Textbook Standards and American Education

ABC's Nightline has a nice concise video outlining the current state of national educational standards, and the incredible amount of influence that Christian fundamentalists like Don McLeroy have over curricula nationwide. The New York Times reports:

Dr. McLeroy still has 10 months to serve and he, along with rest of the religious conservatives on the board, have vowed to put their mark on the guidelines for social studies texts.

For instance, one guideline requires publishers to include a section on “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.”

Powerful conservative leaders are continuing their anti-intellectual assault on American society. Attacking science and evolution is bad enough, but they're now widening their efforts to re-write American history and politics as well. It seems they believed Stephen Colbert when he said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”