Gundato: Hit the nail on the head there bunny-man.
This is a much more complex issue than most people are treating it (which is the consensus we seemed to come to in the other thread on this). While it is likely that there IS an ideological basis for this, it is also an attempt to cover some very vital bits of history regarding the country that are largely ignored.
And it doesn't really help that everyone pushes their own ideological agendas when they tell people about it. :p
Why this is actually a somewhat good idea: For those of you who are from the US, think back to your pre-college education. We know that the pilgrims came here because they were religiously persecuted. But why were they being religiously persecuted? What were their beliefs? What was the political climate in Europe that led to this?
Maybe you learned a few things about England. But this problem was much bigger than one island (otherwise, why go all the way across the Atlantic?), and it is something that most schools refuse to cover.
This is versus covering Thomas Jefferson. Yes, he had a large impact on our nation. But so did a lot of the founding fathers that schools don't cover. There is only so much room in the curriculum, and going into the details of Thomas Jefferson is something that could easily be covered in later education.
As it stands, all people really retain about him is: He wrote the Declaration of Independence and he had a thing for black women/liberated his slaves after his death :p
Do I think this is ideologically driven? Probably. But put aside the politics for a minute and think about the end result. It stops being black and white "evil Texas".

Gundato: Oh, there is definitely an insane amount of bias on both sides :p
One of the big problems here: Religion IS a primary focus, as far as this information goes. Now, I understand that you mean that it shouldn't be about one religion being "right" and another "wrong", but most people just think "Oh mah gawdz! They mentioned that religious people exist! SEPARATE THE CHURCH AND STATE!!! 1984!!!!! NO CREATIONISM!!! SPAGHETTIE MONSTERS!!!" largely because of "news outlets" like The Daily Show and the like (I enjoy the show on occasion, but Stewart is about as unbiased as O'Reilley :p).
As it stands, the curriculum is pretty damned full. Especially since elementary (and middle school, in most cases) have to waste months of every year teaching the exact same curriculum (Black History Month and Thanksgiving come to mind). Don't get me wrong, I think both are things that should be covered, just not annually :p. So there is going to be some collateral damage. Just so long as we still cover the Revolutionary War (well, more like the Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence), I can live with us skipping some of the specifics.
And don't get me started on the Civil War. I went to a pretty damned good high school and we pretty much got to the point where the Civil War started, stopped for the day, then started on the reconstruction the next morning :p.
But I also partially understand that one: We like to pretend that The Civil War was about civil rights, slavery, and all that jazz. It wasn't. It was about economics and political power, and really is nowhere near as clear cut as most non-Texan states would have you believe (admittedly, I find their motives suspect :p). And the last thing anyone wants is to be accused of glorifying the Confederacy. It sucks, but that is one of the problems with the modern news media (a relatively innocent event can quickly spiral out of control as people reproduce the story with their own biases).
Now, don't get me wrong. I am terrified for how this gets spinned. But the concept itself isn't all that horrifying to me.

stonebro: While this is bad, what is happening to the mathematics curriculum in american schools is far, far worse. And that's not just Texas.

Wraith: I mainly posted the daily show link since they actually included some clips of the actual board members speaking some extremely insane drivel. I agree that Daily Show is biased, but what news program isn't nowadays?

TheCheese33: Also, clips of people speaking would've had more obvious edits if they had changed anything about the speeches.

Wraith: Ken Mercer - Full speech
IMO, it sounds like he less about education, and sticking it more to "the armies of the far left". To be honest, I think the whole video is 10x worse than watching the tiny clip The Daily Show showed.
You see, this is the real problem with history. Politics influence the teachings too much, both on the radical right and the loony left. It was extremely obvious when I was taking a medieval history class post-Constantine, and the fact that it still goes on is extremely sad.