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 […]
Recent Blogs
Religious Right Rallies Against Sotomayor
This was so completely predictable, wasn’t it? The religious right is exploding in expected fury at President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court. Nevermind that the first President Bush appointed Sotomayor as a federal disrict judge. The religious right was determined to oppose any Obama nomination, whomever he chose (although Republicans have some difficult […]
We Proudly Work with the Best
During the recent debate over evolution and science curriculum standards in Texas, a favorite source for “quote mining” by State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy was work by the late Stephen Jay Gould. McLeroy did his twisted best to portray Gould — who was one of the country’s most respected evolutionary biologists — as […]
McLeroy Confirmation Alert: Call Your Senator
Word is that Don McLeroy‘s name is on the list of nominees distributed to state senators in Austin today. That means his confirmation as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education could come up for debate and a vote as early as this afternoon, although it’s more likely tomorrow. We know that far-right groups […]
Why Are GOP Leaders Blocking SBOE Reform?
A renewed effort by Texas legislators to put the State Board of Education under Sunset review fizzled this past weekend under pressure from Senate leaders. It appears that Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, had rounded up enough Democratic and Republican votes to add the requirement to House Bill 1959 (which deals with various other agencies under Sunset […]