It’s no secret that President Donald Trump is hardly fond of Hillary Clinton. She was the first woman to be a major political party’s presidential nominee in the United States — but now, the public education requirements in Texas have begun shifting to be more in the president’s liking, proceeding without a reference to the First Lady turned Secretary of State turned presidential contender.
On Friday, the Texas State Board of Education voted to eliminate her, along with other historical figures like Helen Keller and Barry Goldwater from the state’s educational requirements. The move came as part of efforts to streamline the curriculum, with teachers who worked on the process of deciding who should stay and who should go asserting that as is, the system dumps too much information on kids.
To fix the situation, advisory workgroups devised a rubric to rate various historical figures on their relevance to the curriculum’s educational aims — and Clinton didn’t make the cut. The recommendations were presented to the state board on Friday, which in an initial round of voting decided to go ahead with the recommendation to delete Hillary Clinton from the requirements. There’s a second round of voting in November.
In the meantime, state House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner asserted:
‘If Helen Keller was an important historical figure when I was in school (and she was), then she still is today. Clinton is the 1st and only woman to be the presidential nominee of a major party in U.S. history. Enough said.’
The board — with a majority of ten Republicans to five Democrats — did not accept some of the work groups’ recommendations. Although teachers who’d worked on the plans asserted they’d sought to keep politics out of their considerations, it’s hardly sure that those aims carried over into the board’s vote. Among the points where the state board differed with those behind recommendations for the way forward is the fate of education about Billy Graham. Reference to the prominent evangelist had been put forward for deletion, but the state board decided to keep him included, for now at least.
In addition, those behind the recommendations proposed that references to the Biblical figure Moses and Judeo-Christian law as a whole be removed from educational requirements about the underpinnings of the American political system, but the state board decided to keep them in.
The eye-catching decisions come in the midst of a host of others related to education in Texas and beyond. In the state itself, authorities have attracted attention for issues like debating whether an alternative to evolution should be presented to kids.
Outside of the state, the Trump administration has drawn scrutiny for taking Betsy DeVos on board to lead the Department of Education, since she’s hardly a supporter of public schools. In the time since she’s assumed her position, she’d led an assault on behalf of for-profit colleges, among other issues.
It’s all part of a broader picture of corruption in D.C. that continues to be painted as time goes on.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
