The top local stories this evening from KERA News:
The Texas Board of Education has approved creating statewide academic standards for a Mexican-American studies high school course, but Republicans insisted on calling it “ethnic studies” over the tearful objections of a Democratic member.
Friday’s vote creates an elective called “Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican Descent” in a state that was once part of Mexico and where the majority of public school students are Hispanic.
Students, teachers and academics argue that statewide standards will promote more teaching of Mexican-American studies. Board members agreed, but some said using the phrase “Mexican-American studies” excludes other ethnicities.
As KERA’s Krystina Martinez reports, the approval didn’t come without objections from Latino board members about the course name.
Other stories this evening:
- Dallas voters may have the chance this fall to weigh in on whether workers across the city get paid when they’re too sick to work. A coalition of community groups, faith leaders and unions launched a campaign today to put a paid sick leave ordinance on the November ballot. KERA’s Christopher Connelly says that, first, they’ll need to gather nearly 65,000 signatures on a petition by mid-July.
- Energy Secretary Rick Perry is traveling to India today following a large delivery of natural gas from the U.S. The former Texas governor is meeting with government officials and members of the private sector about the growing energy relationship between the U.S. and India.
- Artists and collectors from around the world are coming to the Dallas Art Fair this weekend. That inspired a group of women to start their own art fair, in the abandoned Women's Museum at Fair Park. It's called Vignette and it features the work of Texas women artists. What's it like to throw a satellite art fair? For this week's State of the Arts, KERA's Anne Bothwell talked with Jessica Ingle, president of Vignette, and Erin Murphy, one of the fair's curators.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
