Their parents decisively rejected her in favor of Donald Trump two years ago and soon Texas high-school students will no longer have to learn about Hillary Clinton.
In a vote last week, the Texas State Board of Education decided to remove Mrs. Clinton, among several historical figures, from the required social-studies curriculum for high-schoolers.
According to a report in the Dallas Morning News, Mrs. Clinton’s importance was rated at “5” on a 1-20 scale by the volunteer working group with the responsibility of judging the importance of the potential historical figures.
“We are not talking about the major motion picture ’Footloose.’ We are talking about the United States in 2018,” said a disbelieving MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle in a segment on the decision Monday on her show “Velshi & Ruhle.”
She went on to note with a shocked expression that the Jewish prophet Moses was included and curtly saying “not gonna comment” repeatedly about that.
The decision by the elected State Board — 10 Republicans and five Democrats — is part of the “highly politicized” environment, Dallas Morning News reporter Lauren McGaughy said in an appearance on Monday’s “Velshi & Ruhle” show.”
The board is elected and most people do not know who their State Board of Education representative is,” she explained.
The change doesn’t mean Mrs. Clinton is banned, or that anything will change overnight in Texas public schools. Rather, assuming the requirements win final adoption in November, Texas will not require that Mrs. Clinton be included in high-school history books, as it now does. In a section about citizenship, the current guidelines require students to “evaluate the contributions of significant political and social leaders in the United States,” Mrs. Clinton among them.
With 5.4 million students in its public schools, Texas is the nation’s largest purchaser of school books. Its decisions accordingly affect what books become profitable to produce, since publishers don’t want the expense of custom-designing books for each individual state.
The changes were bipartisan — Republican Barry Goldwater, who lost a presidential election like Mrs. Clinton did — was also recommended for removal, though the state board rejected in Friday’s votes in Austin a proposal to remove evangelist Billy Graham. And students still must learn about the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, in which Mrs. Clinton played a major role.
Ms. McGaughy said on MSNBC that the board “decided to streamline and try to make the curriculum tighter, shorter, more compact and that’s when they recommended all these deletions.”
“There were hundreds of people” for children to learn about, Round Rock teacher Misty Matthews, a member of one of the working groups told the Morning News. “Our task was to simplify … We tried to make it as objective as possible.”
She was not a member of the working group that recommended removing Mrs. Clinton.
According to the Morning News, third-graders must learn about three dozen figures and fourth-graders almost 70.
But state Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus wasn’t buying it and urged that Mrs. Clinton be restored.
“Clinton is the 1st and only woman to be the presidential nominee of a major party in U.S. history. Enough said,” he said.
SBOE needs to reject these changes. If Helen Keller was an important historical figure when I was in school (and she was), then she still is today. @HillaryClinton is the 1st and only woman to be the presidential nominee of a major party in U.S. history. Enough said. #txlege https://t.co/0aKIHV1Iq8
— Chris Turner (@ChrisGTurner) September 14, 2018
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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