As we all wait for election results this evening, check out Paul Burka’s excellent essay about the State Board of Education that just went online at Texas Monthly. Money quotes:
“I do not toss around the term ‘far right’ groundlessly. Here is how retiring board member Cynthia Dunbar describes the institution of public education in her recent book, One Nation Under God: a ‘subtly deceptive tool of perversion.’ Dunbar and her allies on the SBOE have given up on public education. Rather than address how to improve public schools, they seek to slay dragons—evolution, sex education, whole language, new ways of teaching math, unpatriotic depictions of Texas and American history.”
“The bipartisan political action committee Parent PAC has emerged in the past two election cycles to back candidates who support public schools; witness its endorsement of (Thomas) Ratliff against (Don) McElroy. The Texas Freedom Network calls attention to outrages, of which there is no shortage. For many years there have been no consequences for a majority faction that has failed to put the future of Texas ahead of its personal and ideological agendas. With any luck, the majority won’t be a majority anymore.”
We will have updates on TFN Insider this evening as results come in from the polls.
“Farney may be able to self-fund; she has already spent more than $30,000. Osborne captures the basic shortcoming of the SBOE when she says, “There appears to be a FUNDAMENTAL disconnect between the State Board and the children it is supposed to be serving.”
Now, there’s a Freudian slip—along with all of the other standard under garments. Sometimes underwear contains more truth than one might imagine.
Re: new ways of teaching math. I’d just like to go on the record. I think kids ought to learn the multiplication tables in 3rd grade, to 12×12.
I think kid’s ought to learn the basics of geometry in 8th grade , (it’s the basis for logic, which is a major cornerstone of our civilization).
If that makes me conservative, I’d gladly wear that moniker. However, I’m STRONGLY opposed to almost everything else these idiots come up with.
This is a civil war in our country between the responsible adults and the tin-foil-hat ignorant, simple-minded bigots, who are being used cynically by others with completely different objectives.