Dear [textbook publisher],
I am writing to urge you not to lower your standards to appease the anti-science, ultra-conservatives on the Texas State Board of Education who are seeking to rewrite history to reflect a far-right ideology.
As a publisher of textbooks, you are an important steward of our children's education. Do not bend to pressure from a few ideologues in Texas. Parents, teachers, librarians and children are depending on you to stop this attack on our educational system.
[Your comment inserted here]
If you write the Texas curricula standards into textbooks for the national market, children will not learn anything about Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy or his thoughts on the separation of church and state.
When they learn about the Civil War, they'll have to study Jefferson Davis' inaugural address alongside Abraham Lincoln's. And when they study the civil rights movement they'll have to learn about the "unintended consequences" of Great Society programs, affirmative action and Title IX.
Your job is to educate our children, not cater to the whims of a small minority who wish to indoctrinate them. We understand that the Texas State Board of Education exerts enormous market pressure on your company. But we are counting on you to take a stand and resist the pressure to replace history with propaganda in our nation's textbooks.