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STORY: House Bill 1172 has been touted as an attempt to "portray America as a great nation, which has overcome its mistakes to emerge as the most free, democratic nation in the history of the world." However, an amendment to the bill would allow board members to make unlimited decisions about textbook content, rather than adhering to established criteria such as factual accuracy or state curriculum standards. Critics say that without objective criteria to guide them, board members' personal beliefs will largely influence both the selection of topics and content taught to Texas schoolchildren. Political Director of Texas Freedom Network Ashley McIlvain predicts that the loss of standards may hurt Texas students down the line: "When we take factual information from the textbooks that educate our students K through 12, it undoubtedly has an influence on the quality of their education and in the end the quality of the workforce that we're producing here in Texas." The board, which currently can reject books only on the basis of factual error or lack of conformity to state curriculum standards, already has the power to lobby publishers for content change. Asked about previous board decisions, McIlvain recounted the following examples: "In past years, we have seen board members and far-right groups push for changes to textbooks that are far outside the mainstream. These groups want to change the date of the ice age, for example, to the 'distant past' rather than saying 'millions of years ago' because it conflicts with their very literal biblical interpretation. These board members want to portray slavery in a more positive light, so it doesn't reflect negatively on America." Because of the board's increasing demands, McIlvain said a backlash by publishers is likely: "Quite frankly we're already hearing from publishers who are pulling out of Texas because they are being forced to make changes to their textbooks that removes factual information. And in the end, this reduces the pool of quality textbooks here in Texas." As the nation's second largest textbook market, Texas has traditionally exerted disproportionate influence over publishers. For this reason, changes to school textbooks in Texas are frequently extended to schoolbooks throughout the United States, particularly in the subjects of history and biology. Mike Reed & Phara Charmchi, KPFT News, Houston. E-mail Mike Reed & Phara Charmchi at miker0130@yahoo.com & pharac@yahoo.com respectively . This story was broadcast on May 23, 2003.