When Texas elementary school students return to the classroom next fall, they may be studying from textbooks with messages about patriotism, American exceptionalism and the superiority of the free enterprise system. Some of these textbooks will likely also offer a hefty dose of Christian content, with Bible-infused lessons in their English and language arts classes.

“The flag evokes feelings of pride and respect, reminding us of the freedoms and rights that we cherish as Americans,” one lesson in a State Board of Education- approved textbook begins.

Another lesson, called “Tommy’s Big Dream,” introduces a third grader who hopes to become an entrepreneur. “His favorite class is social studies where he learns about free enterprise,” the textbook states. “This means people in America can open businesses.… Tommy admires local shopkeepers who sell books, toys and treats.… He wants to be like them, using creativity and hard work to succeed. One day, he shares his dream with his teacher who says, ‘In America, you can do anything you set your mind to.’ This makes Tommy feel proud to live in a place where dreams can come true with hard work.”

Other textbooks tout different messages.

Some minimize the foundational impact of slavery in the United States, while others celebrate the architectural splendor of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation without mentioning that enslaved people built it. Similarly, a state-sanctioned 5th-grade textbook cites Abraham Lincoln’s “deep Christian faith” and credits Jim Crow laws with encouraging the development of numerous Black businesses.

Others focus on creationism.

And still others ignore climate change, environmental degradation and the many social movements that shaped the 20th and early 21st centuries.

All told, the approved textbooks include a great deal of questionable content and represents the fruit of a six-and-a-half-decade campaign to change what public school students are taught in Texas and beyond.

The story begins in 1961, when Mel and Norma Gabler, Christian fundamentalists from Longview, Texas, created Educational Research Analysts (ERA) to review every textbook used in Texas public schools. The couple were well-versed in the power of organizing and understood that because Texas was — and still is — the second-largest textbook purchaser in the U.S., it had clout. Their initial goals? Making sure that textbooks promoted the teaching of creationism over evolution and showcased the superiority of free enterprise and Christian morality. They also pushed for abstinence-only sex education classes and sought to eradicate what they saw as “liberal bias” in education. The group is now run by Neal and Judy Frey, evangelicals who’ve extended ERA’s agenda to include opposition to marriage equality and trans rights.

A state-sanctioned 5th-grade textbook cites Abraham Lincoln’s “deep Christian faith” and credits Jim Crow laws with encouraging the development of numerous Black businesses.

Slowly but surely, their dogged work has paid off. According to the National Center for Science Education, the Gablers’ first big victory came in 1982, when the Texas State Textbook Committee rejected a top-rated world geography book called Land and People because it said that “biologists believe that human beings, as members of the animal kingdom, have adjusted to their environment through biological adaptation.” Mention of both the Big Bang Theory and the fact that the earth is millions of years old were additional nails in Land and People’s coffin, and the Gablers testified to the committee that “mammals were created, not developed.”

This ball has continued to roll. Zeph Capo, president of the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and a former middle and high school biology teacher, told Truthout that some school districts have “removed all mention of environmental change from the curriculum, barring teachers from discussing it even if it is in the news or is being directly experienced.”

In fact, says Kasey Meehan, director of........

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