Does state board need a history test?

AUSTIN — This is what can happen when you ignore experts, don't fully know your history, and are responsible for approving textbooks for Texas schoolchildren, according to critics worried about the State Board of Education:

Does state board need a history test?

AUSTIN — This is what can happen when you ignore experts, don't fully know your history, and are responsible for approving textbooks for Texas schoolchildren, according to critics worried about the State Board of Education:

You might delete someone recognized by Ladies' Home Journal as one of the 100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century — citing her membership in a socialist organization.

You could ban a popular children's author from textbooks because his name is the same as a professor who wrote favorably about Marxism.

You might even vote to teach youngsters that U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy's 1950s crusade to smear suspected Communists was vindicated by later research on Soviet spying.

The State Board of Education will meet again this week before taking final action in May on new social studies curriculum standards that will influence history and government textbooks for 4.7 million public school students.