In Texas conservative Republicans are rewriting the textbooks to be used in the state's schools to fit their political agenda

When people worry about the US economy being surpassed by the likes of India and China, it's often slipping educational standards that are identified as a possible cause. With that in mind, consider the worrying events in Texas, where Republicans on the state's Board of Education enforced party-political changes to the state's curriculum. As the New York Times reports:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

The vote was 10 to 5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it.

Why does it matter? As the Houston Chronicle notes: "The often contentious process has been watched closely across the nation, particularly this week as the board gathered to debate and vote on the proposed standards. Because of Texas' size, decisions by the board on what should and should not be included can influence publishers whose textbooks may be adopted by other states."

Many of the hundreds of line-by-line changes are tiny but carefully considered: this graphic shows how Richard Nixon's "role" in opening relations with China is to be changed to the more positive "leadership".

The leader of the Republican effort is a dentist named Don McLeroy, who has previously justified his attempts to add qualifications to evolution into science textbooks by saying: "Somebody's got to stand up to experts". You can enjoy that on video right here:

So what were some of the latest changes? The NYT reports:

In economics, the revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, among the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. They also replaced the word "capitalism" throughout their texts with the "free-enterprise system."

"Let's face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation," said one conservative member, Terri Leo. "You know, 'capitalist pig!' "