The state's ruling on biology texts has national implications
When Texas talks, textbook publishers tend to listen. As one of the largest purchasers of school textbooks ($65 million this year), the state has regularly exerted a strong influence on the content of books used by schools across the country. After the Texas board of education accommodated Fundamentalist Christians in 1974 by requiring that evolution be taught as "only one of several explanations" of the origins of mankind, some publishers began to alter their texts to make them more widely acceptable. For instance, in the...