Recommendation for Rejection

It is hereby recommended that the Texas State Board of Education reject the textbook, Magruder's American Government, published by Prentice-Hall.

The basis for this recommendation is the refusal of the publisher to correct several errors, as expressed in their Formal Response to Written Comments, September 11, 2002. See http://www.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks/adoptprocess/sept_prenticehall2.pdf and http://constitution.org/reform/us/tx/textbook/pub_res_0911/sept_prenticehall2.htm. The most serious error is the use, at many points throughout the text, of the term "informal amendment" to refer to various practices or customs. It is not sufficient to explain that these practices are not changes to the written Constitution. The term "amendment" is a legal term with a precise meaning, and it is not acceptable for a textbook publisher to adapt it to refer to practices, for the term connotes authority, and its use appears to be an attempt to impart the acceptance of such practices as being as authoritative as the written Constitution. No practices, including court interpretations, can be as authoritative as the written Constitution, as originally understood, and any term which suggests they are is not just an error. It must be seen as a deception.

A more complete discussion of this will be made available as Response of Jon Roland to the 2002 October 2 response of Prentice-Hall on Magruder's American Government, at http://constitution.org/reform/us/tx/textbook/textbook.htm. This recommendation is conditional on the publisher correcting the errors cited, and making the revisions already accepted by Jon Roland, and it is recommended that the publisher be granted additional time to respond and to make the needed changes.