According to the Weekly Standard, that might be occurring—or not. Public school textbooks in Florida, California and Texas—three states whose large size enables them to set national standards—are adopting a post-9/11 perspective on Islam. Author Stephen Schwartz says older editions simplified or glossed over important aspects of Islam, "The wide range of belief and practice between Sunni, Shia and Sufi Islam, to name only the best known variations, is downplayed, and the problems of Islam, especially violent jihad, are simply left out," but new books may do a better job.

Schwartz praises Texas' revisions, which include adding the rise of the Ottoman Empire to the list of must-know historical "turning points" and contextualizing Islamic fundamentalism within the study of modern totalitarianism. But in his zeal to ensure students understand Islamic extremism—he says, for example, "radical Muslims demand that law and government be guided exclusively by religious sources, typically of a rigid and retrograde nature"—Schwartz forgets that religious fundamentalism looks equally rigid and retrograde when practiced by Christians, Jews and other believers.

Schwartz's point of view comes into focus when he contrasts California's proposed changes with Texas'. The former, he says, treat Islam "as an entirely benign phenomena," perpetuating the fuzzy liberal multiculturalism steered by the state's Islamists. Then, in a zinging coup de grace, he praises the Lone Star state's "sensible and critical path" and calls California "intellectually as well as fiscally weakened."

Journalists might take note of these new standards and come to their own conclusions as to whether or not they are preparing students for the future. Equally worthy might be some reporting on the radical, fundamentalist policies—religious and political—that have bankrupted the nation's formerly best educational system and the once solid Golden State coffers.

Diane Winston