As for social studies, don't get me started on this one! We have a major issue right now in the state of Texas and it is scary! A select few of the extreme right side have determined that we are not teaching 'appropriate' material to our children in public school and have managed get legislation passed that changes Texas textbooks. If we weren't planning on sending our DD to private school we would definitely be doing it now.
Everyone I talk to has an opinion on this. But few have read the standards or understand the process.
The Texas State Board of Texas is an elected board and hires experts to determine the curriculum. They then modify the experts' recommendations and then publish a final set of basic standards.
Rather than a handful of professors determining the standards, you have an elected board of citizens, hired experts, and the textbook writers working on this. You may end up with a hodge-podge, but it is a lot more inclusive than just a handful of professors. These courses are survey courses anyway.
Here is a list of draft standards for US History 1877 to present.
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/social/USHistory073109.pdfReading through this, I really don't see the controversy. For example, they dropped Patton in order to spend more time on blacks in the military - ie Ben Davis and the Tuskegee Airmen.
Here is the list of all standards documents.
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/socialstudiesTEKS.html