Members of the Texas Board of Education should hope historians skip over what some contemplate doing to proposed social studies standards for youth across our state. Both the board’s archconservative members and some liberal groups lobbying for the inclusion of fringe historical figures and trends are missing the point of social studies.

For instance, the state board last week by a 7-6 vote tentatively approved requiring that students study conservative political groups of the 1980s and 1990s — yet with no similar requirement that liberal groups from the same period be studied. That means students must learn about such critical figures as Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly. Right.

And then there’s the amendment by board member Barbara Cargill that requires fifth-graders to learn the capitals of all 50 states — as if that’s going to prepare them to be responsible and knowledgeable American citizens. Plus there was a spirited argument among board members over whether hip-hop should be replaced by an emphasis on country and western music.

The board’s decision to postpone final decisions till March is good, if only to allow board members, special-interest groups and Texans to re-examine what’s happening to our society. It’s gradually morphing into a republic where students learn what’s either politically correct or what’s on someone else’s political agenda. Little of it truly improves students.

While the state board was wrestling with all this, the Lexington Institute issued a report that shows that Americans’ grasp of important concepts and key points in U.S. history is becoming increasingly tentative. It cites figures that show that while 60 percent of respondents in a national survey knew how many children “John and Kate” of reality-TV fame have, only 54 percent could correctly identify James Madison as the “father of the Constitution.”

Likely, even fewer understand the concepts behind the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, which really ought to be the framework of any U.S. history studies.

Considering our times, it’s interesting to note, too, that the American Revolution Center determined in a survey that most Americans lack understanding of the repercussions of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. A majority concluded the protest promptly resulted in a repeal of the British tax on tea. Except it didn’t.

No offense to fans of Phyllis Schlafly or hip-hop or C&W, but if some of the studies and surveys that we hear about are true, we may have far more to worry about in social studies than whether we’re not indoctrinating our kids fast enough in political partisanship or spreading the goofy political correctness that today corrupts so much of our society.