NEW YORK -- Is the presence of 50,000 prostitutes "an important historical fact"? Grace Shore, chairwoman of the Texas State Board of Education, didn't think so, nor did the majority on her 15-member board.
The upshot: Pearson Prentice-Hall, the publisher of "Out of Many: A History of the American People," the college textbook that cites the figure in its "Cowgirls and Prostitutes" section, withdrew the book from consideration by the Texas board. In its place, the British-owned company submitted another textbook that "better fits the state's curriculum."
The June 29 front-page story in the New York Times, "Textbook Publishers Learn: Avoid Messing With Texas," underscores the intriguing state of textbook preparation and marketing in the United States. A report by the Center for Education Reform (May 2001) lists three salient facts about the U.S. textbook market: