Now, it’s time for the real experts to be heard

The Mexican American Legislative Caucus will have some real experts – not Wikipedia browsers – for its upcoming hearing on the State Board of Education’s attempt to hijack history and, unless stopped, the entire public school curriculum.

Seems like some of the Rabid Right members on the SBOE were so uninformed they were frantically Googling figures from Texas history during their curriculum meetings earlier this month.

Jesus Francisco de la Teja, history professor at Texas State University in San Marcos and Texas’ former state historian, doesn’t have to do that. Neither does Emilio Zamora, an equally renowned history professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

At the invitation of the chairman, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, they will be among the authentic history and curriculum experts testifying at the caucus hearing, scheduled for April 28 at the state Capitol.

Other expert testimony will come from the Texas State Teachers Association, whose president Rita Haecker joined Martinez Fischer in announcing the hearing. Martinez Fischer said teacher input was crucial to the process of setting curriculum standards, an observation obvious to everyone but the headsinthesand SBOE bloc.

De la Teja was one of six experts appointed by the SBOE to help write the new social studies curriculum standards – and then watched much of his work be discarded or rewritten to suit the rightwingers’ theological and political views of history.

Culturally and demographically, Texas is a different place than it was a generation or two ago, de la Teja pointed out. About half of the state’s public school students are Hispanic, and that number will continue to increase.

This is a fact that obviously makes conservative, white SBOE members uncomfortable. But downplaying Hispanics’ role in Texas history, as they are trying to do, doesn’t change the historical record – or the realities of a changing Texas landscape.

“We can no longer teach a curriculum that is 5060 years old in terms of its thinking and addresses a population that is the old Texas of the early 20th century,” de la Teja said.

De la Teja, interestingly enough, was appointed state historian for a twoyear term, which expired last year, by Gov. Rick Perry. So, the professor isn’t a bombthrower. He is a realist.

Perry should be listening to him, too.