Texas and schoolbooks have both been in the news recently. Texas is currently rewriting its educational standards, which forces textbook manufacturers to rewrite their textbooks (if they want to sell them in the state). But, on the federal level, Barack Obama is rewriting "No Child Left Behind," and updating the federal education policy to improve it. Part of this effort was a call for what will essentially be a national standard for schoolchildren -- perhaps not quite a national curriculum, but certainly a move in that direction. Taken together, these two news items may produce a result which nobody (to my knowledge) has yet pointed out: textbooks, even in Texas, may get better as a result.

The link most people aren't connecting here is that Texas has a disproportionate influence on what goes into textbooks today. There are a few monster school districts in Texas that (because of their size) are among the biggest markets for schoolbooks in America. And because they're the biggest customers in the marketplace, the textbook publishers cater to these Texas districts' wishes, lest the publishers miss out on such a huge sales opportunity. Ask teachers who work outside of Texas, they'll tell you -- this setup influences what textbooks are offered to other states.

This came to light this week when the changes the far-right school standards group in Texas were revealed. Thomas Jefferson disappeared, for instance. So did any mention anywhere of the word "democratic," to be replaced with "republican" (you can't make this stuff up, sadly). I wonder whether they're allowed to use the term "Civil War" yet, or if it's still officially "The War Of Northern Aggression" in Texas schoolbooks.

But what Obama is proposing may change the equation significantly. Because 48 states seem open to his plan for a national standard, to replace individual states setting their own standards (which has led to wide disparities of what children learn in American schools, depending on where they happen to grow up). The only two holdouts are Alaska and Texas.

Which means, if Obama is successful, that schoolbook publishers will be faced with a single standard for the overwhelming majority of school districts in America. Texas and Alaska will be an afterthought, instead of Texas driving the marketplace. There will be a "48-state" textbook, and (as an afterthought) there may be "Texas" or "Alaska" textbooks as well. But Texas won't be the biggest player in the market anymore, it will be one of two fairly small markets (well, to be fair, Alaska is a lot smaller market than Texas).

This might, ultimately, goad even Texas into joining the national standard, especially if publishers decide it just isn't worth the effort to put out a separate edition for only one state. Then again, it might not have any effect -- both Texas and Alaska (for that matter) have a lot of pride in their states' rogue natures, meaning going it alone is an acceptable political stance in both states.

But what could change their mind is if their state's students start having problems getting accepted into universities outside the state's borders. A Texas high school diploma may be given a lot less weight than one from a state that adheres to the national standard. Meaning upset parents. Which could eventually mean a new school board to make such decisions (as happened in Kansas, in a similar dustup over standards, a while back).

But whatever the outcome, I have to say I've always thought it a silly notion that "local control" of school curricula is any sort of positive thing (except, perhaps, on the subjects of state and local history). National standards, to me, make a lot of sense, because whether I stand in Tennessee or Maine or Hawai'i, two plus two still equals four -- and children should be taught this at roughly the same age. Call me "elitist" if you will, but I look at other Western countries, and I see nationwide curricula in most all of them. The American idea of "local control" of schools never really caught on elsewhere. Having 50 separate state standards (and countless local standards) doesn't seem to serve America's children in any conceivable way.

So, no matter what Texas decides to teach in their classrooms, I hope Obama's push to get at least 48 states to agree on how to educate their children succeeds. Furthermore, I hope that at some point down the line, Texas and Alaska both see the benefits of joining this effort as well. This may be wildly optimistic, but I think the goal of standardizing what a high school diploma means in America is a good one, and I see this as the most positive step towards this end I think I've ever seen.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant