Texas education board OKs retaining Clinton, Keller lessons

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas’ Board of Education has approved future changes to the history curriculum that retain lessons on Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller, as well as instruction about how Moses influenced America’s Founding Fathers and how clashes over states’ rights helped cause the Civil War.

Members gave formal approval Friday to edits “streamlining” how Texas’ 5.4 million public school students learn history beginning next year.

They had voted in September to cut Clinton and Keller, but reversed course earlier this week. After discussion Friday, the board approved directing students to consider “the central role of the expansion of slavery” in causing sectionalism, disagreement over state’s rights and the Civil War.

Board-sanctioned curriculums can affect what’s published in textbooks. Texas is a large enough market that its curriculums can influence other states’ materials.