SBOE CONSIDERING MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

  

The Texas Board of Education is considering adding a Mexican-American studies course as a statewide high school elective.  Proponents say this move  would give students a deeper understanding of their state, where Hispanics make up a majority of public school students.

Critics however, dismiss this effort as an attempt to inject ‘progressive politics’ into the classroom.

The Board’s 10 Republicans and five Democrats will hold a public meeting Thursday, then vote on possible new courses later in the week. This is the first time Texas has considered such a course.  The issue however, is not new in other border states, including California, where a recently introduced bill would mandate reating a model for a standardized, statewide ethnic studies course, there.

Even if Texas Mexican-American studies course is approved, it would still take time to develop a statewide curriculum and appropriate textbooks.  This means the course would not actually be ready for classrooms for another two to three years.  The debate should reignite past ideological battles about what goes into the history curriculum taught in the nation’s second most populous state.

The discussions are likely to be a preview of he coming clashes over the content of new social studies textbooks the board is set to approve for use in classrooms across Texas this fall.  In 2010, then Democratic Board Member Mary Helen Berlanga even stormed out of a meeting on social studies curriculum after failing in her efforts to include more lessons on Hispanic leaders. 

Several Texas school boards, including the state’s largest in Houston, have passed resolutions supporting a statewide Mexican-American studies course.