Barbara Cargill, who chairs the Texas State Board of Education and is running for re-election to her District 8 seat this year, still thinks she is one of a minority of “conservatives” on a state board in which 11 of 15 members are Republicans. And she also wants voters to know that she’s working to protect Texas kids from Planned Parenthood and Muslims.
The Conservative Coalition of Montgomery County (CCMC) this week posted video of a discussion with Cargill at a meeting last February. The group also posted video from a discussion with Cargill’s opponent in the May 29 GOP primary, Linda Ellis. Both candidates are from The Woodlands just north of Houston. (You can watch CCMC videos for Cargill, Ellis and candidates for other elective offices here.)
Cargill got into trouble just days after Gov. Rick Perry appointed her board chair last July, when she suggested that some of her Republican colleagues weren’t Christians and conservative. In her talk before the CCMC in February, Cargill left out the suggestion that five of her Republican colleagues aren’t Christians, but she made clear that she doesn’t think they’re conservatives:
“In looking at some of the other state board races, we would appreciate your prayers to get more conservatives on the board. If we could get seven or even eight, because eight is a majority of the 15. For four years we had seven, and that was so incredible because, you know, it’s right when the science standards were being adopted and then the history standards. So God’s timing was perfect. Then we just had to fight for that one vote to be a majority. So I’m really praying that we have some turnarounds on the board because, you know, now is the time we’ve got to do something and we’ve got to protect these precious children.”
And from what must the state board protect schoolchildren in Texas? Earlier in her talk, Cargill worried what school districts would do with the flexibility the Texas Legislature has given them (in passing Senate Bill 6 last year) to buy instructional materials even if the state board doesn’t approve those materials:
“I guess if I really want to stretch it and stir the pot, they could spend their money on things from Planned Parenthood.”
Yeah, stirring the pot might be one way to describe such a statement.
Cargill insisted that legislators must repeal SB 6, that school districts don’t really want the flexibility the new law gives them, and that the state board would do a better job keeping kids from being indoctrinated into Islam:
“There’s no error checking now. Because that was a big thing that we did when we appoint the panels to look through the textbooks, was to check for errors and to make sure that the content didn’t have, like, such a slant towards Islam, etcetera.”
Wondering where that came from? In 2010 Cargill supported a state board resolution (which passed) attacking Islam and falsely claiming that history textbooks are pro-Muslim and anti-Christian. Never mind, of course, that a Republican-dominated state board had approved those textbooks in 2002.
In her own discussion with the CCMC, Ellis stressed her support for local control and opposition to management of public schools from Washington as well as too much control in Austin.
All 15 seats on the State Board of Education are up for election this year. You can find a listing of candidates, district information and election news at tfn.org/sboe2012.
National Sex Education Standards? This should only happen if parents and the state/local school systems demonstrate that they are clearly incapable of doing it themselves—-which means THE RIGHT TIME IS NOW.
I would suggest the use of props, like a flaccid rubber penis that can be blown up with a squeezable rubber air bulb and tube. “This is what happens to the boys when they get aroused.” No small ones. Use a big one. Then make the girls practice putting a condom on it correctly because everyone knows that girls are better than boys at things like this. The rich Southern Baptist girl in preppy clothes who always sits shyly in the back corner of the classroom gets to go first.
This is what the Christian fundamentalists IMAGINE would go on in such classes, and that all the children will end the class by running for cold showers and a change of underwear. In truth, this is what would happen to their prude parents—not them.
But seriously folks. I suspect that these classes would be about as cold and clinical as a boring lecture in medical school. They would be very information oriented. The children would be taught about sex. It would not be a “how to” class for one very good reason. The kids already know “how to.” Mom and dad are just dumb enough to think that they do not already know. Why is that?
Charles,
And did you notice that she first called them “national sex standards”? Good grief.
“…we’ve got to protect these precious children.”
One can be pretty certain that something is amiss when a wannabe elected official says that…..
“Protect the children from Muslins!”
The Lake Conroe News or Montgomery News or whatever it is they call it these days, endorsed Cargill in the primary.
Afterwards, I shared with the editors, a few tidbits about what creationism is, and why we don’t teach it in public schools. Haven’t heard anything back and as far as I can tell they didn’t publish my letter however I was VERY clear as to why we don’t recommend creationists for government seats involving education. Hopefuly they got the message and will change their endorsement to Cargill’s opponent in the primary. Unless their brains are set in concrete, which could be.
Will
If this is the focus taken by any school representive, which mentions Muslims and sex attitudes, that will shape the teaching views and a belief system that will be taught in the schools of Texas,I won’t be voting for them. ‘Protecting’ students from all those type of political and sexual orientations is unrealistic and slanted to a blatant political Republican agenda. There is obviously no REAL concern for the students’ learning strengths. Someday students will have come in contact with other views of life and it is at school one LEARNS TO THINK. Viewing life doesn’t totally encircle sex and politics, but it evolves around Learning and empowering oneself, and being open to other views on life. Teaching the belief of Christianity in school and then, to equated another religion as negatively such as “Muslims”, is deplorable. I don’t want Christianity taught within the school that my child will attend. Teaching any child is part of developing an ability to make their own decisions such as to having a baby, which means maybe if they feel it’s correct for them to use in the future, some sort of planned parenthood which deals with the reality of life this construct should be talked about and considered. ‘Keeping ‘someone’ safe from Muslims’ is offensive because some Americans are Muslims. Thus, by using this theme as one of your primary reasons for running for office is offensive, as is teaching religion within the schools. YOU WILL BE HAVING A GREAT DEAL OF PROBLEMS WITH ME AS THE LEGAL GUARDIAN if POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS VIEWS ARE TAUGHT in school, those in charge of teaching aren’t teaching individuals how to think or deal with REAL WORLD DECISIONS about one’s own body (such as making babies and keeping in tune with the genes which ‘work over time’ from the age 11 to 25yr), religion should NOT be taught in the schools because not all of us in this state are Christians, believe it or not. Religion is a philosophy that should be taken freely by the student when in a higher learning facility when they have learned to think and understand what others consider important. Legally, Freedom of Religion, I notice has been forgotten by the state of Texas. Being closed to the fact that others’ religions don’t count is not conservativism, but blatantly promoting ignorance and is singling other Americans out as ‘not good enough’ especially since the public schools are that, public, which promotes bulling, which your schools with religion taught takes place, much more than usual. It’s hard enough for young people to define themselves without the state creating more difference. Books written with Christian overtones and teachings are NOT appropriate for school time alotted to LEARN WHAT IS NECESSARY TO GET TO THE NEXT GRADE. Teaching religion and creating an bad situation for others because of their religion does NOT belong in public schools or even in our country; That time is wasted on teaching religion, takes away from learning all one can absorb concerning the sciences of the real world, which progressively get more rigorous as one goes to a higher grade. By the time children get to high school when one has to compete to get into a higher learning facility, what they have been taught and learned will eventually lead them to graduate and to a good job being able to compete with other countries, which I hope that is what the Woodlands schools want for their students. Believe me, when I vote, I won’t be able to vote for’ Ms. Cargill. I have to mention too, that making such a point for a student to be indoctrinated to suggest that the prevention and not allow others of the same sex to marry is telling two American citizens that have equal rights in the eye of the Law, that you are denying their rights as Americans, who are viewed as equal in the view of the Law and the Consitution. I would put money on it that those who have this negative view of this special population don’t know anything about them and have NEVER put out any energy to find out why they are this way. Too, find the answer to why it is that these people view the world differently than the rest of us. And Ms. Cargill, you are running for office to set policy for the schools !??! I speak as a mother, grandmother, Vietnam veteran, and legal guardian of a child that attends school in The Woodlands.