Texas Board of Education Member Will Propose New Establishment Clause Focus In Social Studies

This week, the Texas State Board of Education resumes deliberations on revisions to the state's social studies curriculum. In March, the Board approved a number of changes that will require more conservative approaches to history and economics. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's Dallas Morning News reported that Don McLeroy, a leading social conservative on the board, has distributed several amendments that he wants added before this week's final vote on the standards. One of the proposals-- for the 8th grade history curriculum-- would call for students to: "contrast the Founders' intent relative to the wording of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, with the popular term 'Separation of church and state.' " This reflects conservative contentions that the doctrine of separation of church and state was added by judges and was not part of the drafters' original intent. Earlier the Board rejected a proposal that, in contrast, would have had high schoolers study the reasons the Founders barred the government from promoting religion.