Embattled State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy has finally found a defender in the Texas Senate. Sort of. In a story on KUT radio this morning, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, gave something less than a full-throated endorsement of McLeroy’s competence as board chairman:
You’re talking about a chairman and a chairman’s ability to manage a meeting. I have had absolutely no indication that he hasn’t done a good job.
Well, first of all, the state’s English teachers might take issue with the claim that McLeroy presides over fair and even-handed meetings. (Is Sen. Nelson really prepared to defend McLeroy’s decision to cast aside two years of work by teachers on English-Language Arts standards and slide a never-before-seen draft under the hotel doors of his fellow board members hours before the final vote? — hat tip: Tony’s Curricublog.)
But the accuracy of this claim aside, is this really the best argument McLeroy’s defenders can muster — that he can manage a meeting? What a spectacularly low standard for a position that wields significant influence over the curriculum for 4.6 million schoolchildren (not to mention a multi-billion dollar Permanent School Fund).
If that’s all you’ve got, Sen. Nelson, we respectfully suggest that the state of Texas can do better by its children.
Don McLeroy is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the state of Texas….as if we needed anything to drag us further down than we already stand nationwide.
The idea that “creationism” is a science is ludicrous. We do not need people like this on the State School Board, much less leading it.
Carol Brady
Retired Teacher and Christian….not of the right wing type
The Republicans are struggling to find something nice to say about McLeroy. Its funny to watch. “He can manage a meeting” is about as lame as it gets.
From what I could tell at the meeting in March, Chairman McLeroy disrupted the Social Studies rewrite process in much the same way as ELA. The full board took actions on an agenda item marked “review” with no testimony from any of the Social Studies writing teams. McLeroy then halted the process without a vote. At the SBOE meeting in May, Chairman McLerory admitted he passed unfinished drafts of the revised Social Studies TEKS despite expressions of surprise from SBOE and writing team members. They were told all deliberations were private until the draft was finalized.
Wise chairmanship involves adhering to rules and processes in order to protect the minority from the majority. But time and again, the process is changed with members claiming their authority is greater than any rule, any procedure.
Statesmanship acts to protect all, partisanship protects only one..
Heck. My 15-year-old daughter is downstairs right now managing a cooking meeting for her Spanish class. They have to prepare a Spanish delicacy from scratch for her Honors Spanish Class. Don McLeroy and 15-year-old girls flunking math can manage meetings. Does that say something or what?
well.. now that Ada the transitional human evolution fossil has made an appearance, that alone should be shutting down this farse
I’m a constituent of Ms. Nelson’s and several weeks ago I wrote to her specifically about not just the poor decisions that are being made, but how badly the SBOE meetings are run. If she doesn’t care to listen to her voters, it seems there are any number of other sources about how these meetings are going. She can’t say she has “absolutely no indication he hasn’t done a good job.”