History books spark latest Texas classroom battle
By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press
Sep 16, 2014 2:10 PM CDT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — As Texas mulls new history textbooks for its 5-plus million public school students, some academics are decrying lessons they say exaggerate the influence of Christian values on America's Founding Fathers.

Conservative activists, meanwhile, are complaining about what they see as liberal biases in the same books.

Those objections and dozens more were on display Tuesday at an hours-long, often tense Board of Education public hearing on more than 100 proposed new textbooks.

It's the latest ideological battle over what gets taught in the classrooms of America's second-largest state.

But this time, the right and left are both criticizing the books, though for very different reasons.

Despite high emotions, the board won't vote to approve new books until November. They won't go into classrooms until next year.