Washington, DC – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary and Homeland Security, Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations, and Member of the House Budget Committee, issued the following statement regarding the decision by the Texas Board of Education to drop historically significant public figures like Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller from the public school curriculum:

The announcement by the Texas Board of Education to drop certain figures, including Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller, from the state’s curricula is regressive and deeply disturbing. It represents a denial of our nation’s shared history, and symbolizes a preference for partisanship over scholarship. It is outrageous that the future of our children’s education is handled in such a haphazard way. Moreover, the range of topics selected for exclusion from the curriculum include: the former first lady and first woman to earn the nomination for president of a major political party; the first disabled woman to earn a bachelor’s degree; and, Barry Goldwater, the ethnically Jewish individual to secure the presidential nomination of a major political party—speaks more to a naked desire to prevent learning about these important individuals, than it speaks towards conserving instruction time (the stated reason for the change).

The decision to prevent young children from learning about these individuals is not the first from the Texas Board of Education that turns back the clock on knowledge and information. In that respect, it is no different than another of the Board’s terrible decisions to soften slavery as a cause for the civil war. Moreover, in the age of alternative facts and fake news ushered in by the current occupant of the White House, the decision to deprive young minds thirsty for knowledge is especially troubling. I urge the State Board of Education to reverse these decisions at its meeting on November 16, and encourage all Texans to contact their representative on the State Board of Education to make known their objections to these improvident changes to the state’s curricula.