Arguing that American textbooks have been hijacked by a liberal agenda, board members are trying to restore a conservative bent to the material taught in grades K-8. The current "standards are rife with leftist political periods and events: the Populists, the Progressives, the New Deal and the Great Society," board member Don McLeroy said in a statement. "Including material about the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s provides some political balance to the document."

In the proposed changes, Susan B. Anthony would be wiped from the history books, along with Florence Nightingale and Shirley Chisholm (the first black woman elected to Congress). In their place would be Abigail Adams and Phyllis Schlafly, a conservative politician who opposed feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment.

When students learn about the McCarthy hearings, they might now learn that Joseph McCarthy was eventually vindicated as details about spying emerged. A popular children's-book author, Bill Martin Jr., has been stricken from the curriculum because he shares the same name as a professor who wrote favorably about Karl Marx.

Even W.E.B. Du Bois, founder of the NAACP, may not make the cut. For the moment, the famous civil-rights activist's writings have been included in the reading curriculum -- but his ties to the Communist party and the fact that he ultimately moved to Ghana and denounced capitalism might undo him.

AUSTIN – Republicans on the State Board of Education soundly rejected a Democratic-backed proposal Thursday that would have required Texas students to be taught the reasons behind the prohibition of a state religion in the Bill of Rights.

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Knight said all she was trying to do in her proposal was to let students study the First Amendment language that states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

A succession of court rulings have relied on that language to uphold the separation of church and state in a section of the Bill of Rights referred to as the "Establishment Clause."

But many religious conservatives – including a board-appointed curriculum expert – contend that separation of church and state was established in the law only by activist judges and not the Constitution or Bill of Rights.

Worried that high school sociology students would be thrust into the world of “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else,” the State Board of Education struck a reference to “sex and gender as social constructs” in the social studies curriculum standards.

Board Member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, said a discussion of the difference between sex and gender would be “very, very inappropriate” in a high school course.

But Mavis Knight, D-Dallas, said it was naive to think that high school students would not know that some of the classmates are gay, bisexual or transgendered.

“It is no secret to them so you might as well bring it out into the open and discuss it,” Knight said.

The motion to eliminate the reference passed on a vote of 9 to 6.

Home-school textbook market dominated by books skeptical of evolution.

According to the Associated Press, home-schooling parents seeking textbooks that include evolution are finding the dominance of Christian-based materials to be isolating and frustrating. The publishers that largely control the home-school textbook market, which include Bob Jones University Press and Apologia Educational Ministries Inc., often include overt affirmations of Christianity and “stack the deck against evolution“:

"Those who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God will find many points in this book puzzling," says the introduction to "Biology: Third Edition" from Bob Jones University Press. "This book was not written for them.” The textbook delivers a religious ultimatum to young readers and parents, warning in its "History of Life" chapter that a "Christian worldview … is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is."