Religious Right Propaganda in Civics Textbook

The Center for Inquiry has released a report strongly criticizing a widely used civics textbook, American Government: Institutions and Policies, written by James Q. Wilson and John DiIulio. Wilson, a Republican, and DiIulio, a Democrat, are certainly eminent scholars. That only makes one wonder how in the world the errors documented in this report made their way into the book, especially into the 10th edition.

Some of the material quoted on prayer in schools, for example, is egregiously wrong. They repeatedly make it sound as though the Supreme Court had said no student or teacher can ever pray in school under any circumstances. For instance, they caption a photo:

Page 111 [photo caption]: ―Students pray in front of a high school in Virginia. The Supreme Court will not let this happen inside a public school.

This is patently false. There are literally thousands of Christian student groups in schools all over the country. Federal law guarantees their right to be formed and recognized by public schools. And they hold meetings every single day that include group prayers.

Update: Religious Right Propaganda in Civics Textbook Uncorrected in 11th Edition