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Christmas and Columbus Stay in Social Studies:
State Board of Education Votes for Christmas, Historical Figures

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) voted late last night to keep Christmas and other important historical figures in social studies standards, effective for the next ten years.  Free Market Foundation, which led the charge for to put Christmas back in the standards after it was removed, issued the following statement:

“Christmas should have never been removed from social studies, while Ramadan and other holidays remained,” said Jonathan Saenz, Legislative Director at Free Market Foundation.  “The Board heard the message of over 5,000 Texans loud and clear: You don’t mess with Christmas in Texas.”

Nearly 5,100 Texans signed the Free Market Foundation petition at www.ChristmasTextbooks.com to keep Christmas in social studies standards launched just a few weeks ago. 

Holidays now included in sixth grade social studies include Christmas, Easter, Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Vaisakhi, Diwali, and the annual hajj.  The SBOE also kept in the phrase “describe how religion (and virtue) contributed to the growth of representative government…”  This phrase had been removed by an unelected curriculum review team earlier.  Columbus is now back in the social studies more often than Mary Kay Ash.  The curriculum review team had eliminated Columbus in a particular section, but the SBOE corrected this bizarre imbalance. 

“Censoring the religious background of our heritage as Texans and Americans is not good education and is unacceptable,” said Kelly Shackelford, President/CEO of Free Market Foundation.  “We are grateful the Board represented Texans well and ensured this attempt to rewrite history was crushed.”

This is the first vote by the SBOE.  The final version of social studies curriculum and final votes will not come until March of this year.  FMF will continue watching this issue closely through March.  The standards, once approved, will go into effect in 2011 and remain in place for ten years.

Visit the Texas Legislative Update blog for updates from the hearing.