Putting the Teaching of American History and Civics Back into Our Classrooms
by The Honorable Lamar Alexander
March 14, 2003 (Heritage Lecture #784)
Senator Alexander has introduced a proposal that would put the teaching of American history and civics back in our schools so our children can grow. (more)

U.S. News Classroom activity for grades 9-12: Revising the Civil War? (link)

Rewriting History in Textbooks (1993)
The political correctness debate has led to increased scrutiny of how textbooks present the history of different peoples. While many minorities have actively campaigned to have their histories more accurately depicted, Jews have stayed on the sidelines. (more)

Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Publications (link)
A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks
Effective State Standards for U.S. History: A 2003 Report Card

Pop Quiz: 20 Questions Parents Should Ask about Their Children's School
The most important reason to be actively involved in your children's school(s) is that you as a parent are responsible for your children's education. Current evidence shows that when parents are meaningfully involved in their children's education, scholastic achievement can greatly improve. (more)

Ranking High School History Textbooks
June 2003 Education Reporter
The Mel Gablers Educational Research Analysts recently reviewed U.S. History textbooks adopted by the state of Texas, including high school texts. They found that of the four publishers submitting new textbooks, three "had more or less the same old pro-big government, anti-free market, political correctness problems." (more)

Teaching History: Fact or Fiction?
Phyllis Schlafly Aug. 6
In rare moments when Congress isn't preoccupied with the war, taxes or prescription drugs, Congress is worrying that American students don't know any American history. Congress is right to worry because this is true, but it doesn't follow that the federal government is capable of remedying the problem. (more)

Politically Correct Texts Distort United States History, Critics
Social studies textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools are mostly a disgrace that fail to give a true account of American history, leading scholars charge. (more)

Errors and Censorship
February 2003 Education Reporter
For years, the textbooks used by most American children have been riddled with errors. A few brave reviewers, including the Gablers' Educational Research Analysts of Longview, Texas, have tried to alert parents and educators about the problem. Recent publicity has once again brought to light the issue of factually incorrect yet politically-correct textbooks. (more)

How Public School Curriculum Has Changed!
March 2002 Phyllis
Obsession with Nosy Questionnaires
Many parents assume that the tests given to their children in public school are only for educational purposes. To the contrary, for many years schools have been demanding that students answer nosy questions about their personal behavior and attitudes, about what goes on inside the family, and even about the behavior of relatives. (more)

The New Federal Curriculum And How It's Enforced
March 2002
The new federal curriculum is a hidden curriculum, but occasionally some evidence of it appears. The homosexual agenda, for example, comes under the purview of multiculturalism. Federal law now requires that multicultural-ism be taught in all the schools. (more)

Dumbing Down and Developing Diversity
March 2001 Phyllis
Tests, standards and accountability are the watchwords for public school education reform. Such good words! Can they do the job?
Unfortunately, the testing system has been corrupted. Under the 1997 revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the school must give "appropriate accommodations" on every test to all "children with disabilities." (more)

How Did We Get A Federal Curriculum?
Phyllis Schlafly Feb. 13
Behind frequent protestations by public officials about local control of the schools, a federal curriculum has been quietly imposed by law. All the pieces are now in place for this major goal of the Clinton Administration. (more)

The Courts v. the Commandments, Round 2
Recently the U. S. Supreme Court heard two cases involving challenges to Ten Commandments monuments on the Texas Capitol grounds and in two county courthouses in Kentucky. The Texas case is Van Orden v. Perry. The Kentucky case is McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. In Texas, the lower courts upheld the display. In Kentucky, badly divided lower courts outlawed the displays, which changed several times during the course of that litigation. (more)

Is Your School's Curriculum UN Approved?
November 2003
Does it seem far out to ask such a question? Would that it were so. The United States is working with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to federalize the curriculum of all public schools in the United States. The new curriculum would be one that conforms to those of other countries as well as to UNESCO. (more)

S.C. Code of Laws Title 59 Chapter 31 Textbooks (link) (3 specific sections)
SECTION 59-31-40. Adoption of new books; books to be error free. The meetings of the State Board of Education in any year at which an adoption is made must be public. New textbooks adopted by the State Board of Education in any year must not be used in the free public schools of this State until the next school session begins. Each contract between the State Board of Education and a publisher of textbooks and instructional materials or vendor of instructional technology must require that all textbooks or other instructional material rented or purchased by the State be free of any clear, substantive, factual, or grammatical error. The contract also must allow the State Board of Education to require reasonable remedies if an error is found.

SECTION 59-31-45. Selection of textbooks; requests; procedures. (A) In addition to any other method of textbook selection, the State Board of Education shall add to the approved list of textbooks for use in the public schools of this State any textbook or series of textbooks which have been reviewed and not adopted by the state board if the textbook or series is requested in writing by the boards of trustees of five or more school districts or by the boards of trustees of two or more school districts with a combined population of twenty-five thousand or more students. Local school districts shall establish procedures under which principals and teachers of the district may transmit textbook requests as permitted by this section. (B) The number of requests required to be received above shall be as received during any three hundred sixty-five day period. A textbook so required to be added to the approved list shall be added within thirty days following the receipt by the state board of the requisite number of requests, provided that the publishers whose textbooks are to be added to the approved list as provided in this section comply with the same provisions regarding textbooks as other publishers including, but not limited to, price, durability, and availability. No designation shall be included upon the approved list which indicates the manner in which any textbook was added to the list.

SECTION 59-31-50. Use of disapproved books unlawful. In all schools and colleges within this State which are supported in whole or in part from the free school funds it shall be unlawful to use any textbook which has been condemned or disapproved by the State Board of Education.