Institutionalizing teh stupid

The statewide Texas Board of Education last week adopted curriculum standards designed to promote what I'll call a conservative slant on history.

There's so much wrong with this, I'm not sure where to start. Some bullet points:

• Since the Texas schoolbook market is so large, the state's decisions on what goes into its textbooks can affect other states; publishers may find it uneconomical to provide two versions of various books.
• This isn't new. Stories like this periodically come out of Texas about this time each year.
• This is yet another example of the conservative agenda at work: To dumb down the populace and eliminate any criticism of elites and their institutions.

Public school students in Texas (and perhaps other states) now will have an artificial hurdle they must clear before they can effectively compete in the marketplace of ideas.

According to 2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas ranked 33rd among all 50 states when examining persons 25 years old and over with a bachelor's degree or more.

May the FSM help us all.

DCr