Gotta Get Outta Here!

The Texas Board of "Education" has voted to remove Neil Armstrong, Caeser Chavez, Thurgood Marshall, Stephen F. Austin (?!), Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Franklin D. Roosevelt (among others) from history and social studies textbooks. They also plan to add references to Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh (among others) because "liberals outnumber references to people that identify themselves as conservative."

There are a lot of reasons why this is ridiculous, but don't they realize that it’s not surprising that a social studies text would tend to focus more on the people who push for social change? (Generally people classified as 'liberals.') You don’t tend to get into the history books by maintaining the status quo unless you fail spectacularly at it. (-cough-RickPerry-cough-)

Another proposed change in the social studies standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, includes referring to the United States as a republic instead of a democracy in order to insinuate that "republican" is better than "democratic." Brainwashing much?

Here are some more great accomplishments that my (and I use that term loosley) state has made:

Texas is ranked
*49th in teacher pay
*1st in the percentage of people over 25 without a high school diploma
*41st in high school graduation rate
*46th in SAT scores
*1st in percentage of uninsured children
*1st in percentage of population uninsured
*1st in percentage of non-elderly uninsured
*3rd in percentage of people living below the poverty level
*49th in average WIC benefit payments
*1st in teenage birth rate (With my very own Lubbock in the lead)
*50th in average credit scores for loan applicants
*1st in air pollution emissions
*1st in volume of volatile organic compounds released into the air
*1st in amount of toxic chemicals released into water
*1st in amount of recognized carcinogens released into air
*1st in amount of carbon dioxide emissions
*50th in homeowners’ insurance affordability
*50th in percentage of voting age population that votes
*1st in annual number of executions

This is a popular bumper sticker here:

Perhaps someone should market one that says "Living in Texas? Get out while you still can!"

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