The Texas Board of Education has levied a fine of $239,500 against five history textbook publishers for more than 3,700 errors that were discovered in their books.
Board members Friday approved the new textbooks on a 12-2 vote on the condition that they be nearly error-free within two weeks. If they are not ready for use by then, the board said, the texts will not be used in Texas public schools beginning this fall.
Controversy over the books arose last November when two longtime textbook critics presented the board with a list of more than 200 factual errors they had found in the books, printed by five publishers.
The disclosure angered several board members, who delayed the scheduled adoption of the history books until this month so the publishers could correct them.
Further scrutiny of the books revealed 3,700 errors, including wrong dates for key historical events and incorrectly identified historical figures. State Education Commissioner Lionel ”Skip” Meno told board members he had a ”real temptation” to cancel the entire $20 million shipment of history books because of the errors.
But he recommended conditional adoption, noting that the history books being used in junior high and high schools were 6 years old.
Board member Bob Aikin predicted the fines and other penalties that publishers face will cause them to scrutinize their books more closely.
”This should give them the incentive to get it right,” he said.
But the two board members who voted against the adoption said they had seen no evidence that publishers will change their ways.
”This (fine) is a drop in the bucket compared to what they are going to make off these books,” said Bill Hudson, who opposed the textbook approval.
Texas, the second largest purchaser of textbooks in the nation after California, has a major influence over the market because publishers generally sell Texas-approved books in other states.
