DALLAS, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Texas state school officials have adopted a new health textbook that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but it may not get the wide distribution that the Texas editions of other textbooks have in the past.
As the second-largest purchaser of schoolbooks in the nation, Texas schoolbook decisions have far-reaching effects because publishers can't publish a separate edition for every state and the Texas curriculum is similar to many other states.
Often in the past, the Texas edition of a textbook was adopted as the national edition and offered with only minor typographical changes to other states. In the case of the new health textbooks, the changes are controversial.
On Friday, the Texas Board of Education adopted new health texts for middle and high school students after publishers agreed to changes suggested by some board members that define marriage and promote abstinence with little mention of other forms of birth control.
Terri Leo, a Republican board member, said the original language violated a state law that bans same-sex marriage in Texas. She said language referring to "partners" and "couples" implied approval of gay marriage.
In one of the revised books, Holt, Rinehart and Winston inserted the sentence, "Marriage is a lifelong union between a husband and wife," in three different places.
The textbooks were nearly unanimously adopted by the Republican-controlled board after the publishers voluntarily inserted the language. The textbooks will be recommended to school districts for use in Texas schools next year.
The Texas Freedom Network and other groups criticized the board action, charging that it failed to meet state curriculum standards by offering no information about family planning or disease prevention.
Stephen D. Driesler, executive director of the school division for the American Publishers Association, said Monday the last-minute changes would add to the publisher's costs. Publishers can invest $30 million in developing one book.
"The publishers have agreed to make the changes suggested to them at what is obviously the 11th hour and 59th minute of an adoption in which they have invested many years and millions of dollars in developing a product," he said.
Driesler would predict what impact the Texas action would have on publishers and other school systems. He said Texas is always closely watched, but there are often subtle, sometimes typographical, changes for national consumption.
Publishers had invested in the planning and printing of the original versions of the textbooks because they have to provide sample copies as part of the long Texas selection process, which requires reviews by committees and then hearings before the state board.
"Whether they will go ahead and use that (original) as the basis of a national edition of that textbook or whether they will use the version with the changes they have agreed to make, I don't know the answer to that," he said. "It may vary from publisher to publisher."
Publishers will have to decide whether other states will accept that kind of language change or not, Driesler said.
During the board debate, one member noted that 11 states had voted against same-sex marriage on Election Day and that was a reflection of national sentiment. Two other states had voted against same-sex marriage prior to the election.
Twenty states have state textbook-adoption procedures much like Texas, and the smaller states sometimes coordinate their decisions with Texas. They want the most updated textbooks, but they know the publishers can't print a book for every state.
California is the largest purchaser of textbooks in the nation, but Texas is usually the trendsetter because its curriculum is more compatible to other states, Driesler said.
In the remainder of the states, the decisions on textbooks are made by school districts, schools and even individual classroom teachers in some cases. In Texas, the system is tied to state funding for schoolbooks, as it is in most other state adoption states.
Texas school districts, which serve 4 million students, must purchase from the recommended list of books if they want state help in purchasing them. They have a selection of books on each subject, but the state board has approved them all.
On Friday, the board approved a total of nearly $400 million in school textbooks in various subjects for next school year.
The 15-member, elected board has been criticized in the past for editing school textbooks. In 1995 a state law was passed that restricts the board to only making corrections of factual errors, but critics contend loopholes have developed.
Last year the board approved 11 biology books that teach evolution, despite objections to most of the books from conservative members. The action that time won the praise of groups advocating the teaching of evolution.
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