Gov. Greg Abbott Appoints SBOE Member Donna Bahorich as New Chair

Gov. Greg Abbott today announced the appointment of Texas State Board of Education member Donna Bahorich, R-Houston, as board chair. Bahorich replaces Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands. We just sent out the following press release:

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller is expressing disappointment in Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision, announced today, to appoint State Board of Education member Donna Bahorich, R-Houston, as board chair:

“If Gov. Abbott wanted to demonstrate that he won’t continue his predecessor’s efforts to politicize and undermine our state’s public schools, this appointment falls far short. The governor has appointed as board chair an ideologue who voted to adopt new textbooks that scholars sharply criticized as distorting American history, who rejected public education for her own family and who supports shifting tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private and religious schools through vouchers. This appointment almost guarantees that the board will continue to put culture war agendas ahead of educating more than 5 million Texas kids.”

In 2013, her first year on the board, Bahorich voted against a resolution urging the Legislature to reject private school vouchers. Bahorich also homeschooled her three sons and then sent them to private and religious school. The board adopted controversial new social studies textbooks in 2014.

12 thoughts on “Gov. Greg Abbott Appoints SBOE Member Donna Bahorich as New Chair

  1. As we have seen already, Gov. “Bought and Paid For” Abbott is going to continue to pander to far right religious wingnuts. We can see open carry for fetuses, the Bible as the state bird and other lunacy. Appointing another homeschooling creationist to the SBOE is not unexpected. Abbott doesn’t care about education. He only cares about getting stroked by the religious right and hanging on to his pitiful role as “governor” for as long as possible. Hey, Gov. Oops milked that cow for 14 years!

    1. Doc: I was intrigued by your comment about “open carry for fetuses….” I fear that the RR might try to find a way to make that possible. Can you imagine how a vehemently pro-life pregnant woman would just love knowing that her unborn child is packin’?

      1. Well, some GOPsters and their ilk have used ‘if fetuses had guns there would be no abortion’ as a serious slogan. Knifes for a self-Caesarean would of course be more useful.
        Claims of ‘inside job’ would have to be expected though.

  2. What’s the surprise? We’ve known all along what a simpleton Abbott is, so of course he would hire a simpleton to ruin Texas’ SBOE

    Evolution? Nah, we’re not descended from monkeys, we ARE monkeys. The bible is the literal word of their god whether or not it is the King James Version or the King James Version OR perhaps the King James Version. So WHAT if it is only a version and a pretty bad attempt at translating at that.
    There has never been any other definition of marriage, it has always been polygamy!
    The earth, as we all know is flat and man has never been to the moon–it was a movie done in Arizona.

    Honestly, I knew that he would grab someone from the far right (wrong) religious TEAliban bunch. After all, Texas has to remain the national laughing stock.

  3. Yes, just what the State Board of education needs. Another right wing religious a$$hole trying to shove her BS down everyone’s throat. This State has no chance at doing anything good for ALL the people of the State until it rids us of every single rethug in office. Rethugs do nothing but take us backward.

  4. Oh dear — the saga continues. I strongly suspect that there’s some “serious money,” (if you’ll pardon the expression) behind the religious right that keeps pulling the puppet strings causing SBOE chairmanship appointments of this nature. Where is that money coming from and what is their agenda?

  5. Yeah and the last appt.’s with all the “qualified” backgrounds did fantastic. Thinking outside the box is dangerous.

  6. Kathy Miller says, “The governor has appointed as board chair an ideologue who…rejected public education for her own family and who supports shifting tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private and religious schools through vouchers.” So, you are hoping any parents that read this won’t understand that you are against giving parents the power to choose where to send their children for education. That is the power of the voucher which you intentionally refuse to mention. Could it be because you know most parents would choose something better than public education, which is deplorable, dysfunctional and a waste of tax dollars? Yes, I think so.

    1. Vouchers are a scam that takes public dollars from neighborhood schools to subsize private schools that aren’t accountable to taxpayers. Private schools have the power. They pick and choose which students to admit, and taxpayers pay for it.

  7. “Your comment is awaiting moderation.
    July 22, 2015 at 6:44 pm”
    What does that mean? Censored or merely redacted? Public Education: Strongly policing thoughts for near half a century…and this site is just an extension of the same system bent on securing its future at the expense of your children…in the name of “Religious Freedom * Civil Liberties * Public Education” LOL…Well, I’ll give you the 3rd one, but you’ve no clue on the first two.

    1. It means what it says. All comments on here are moderated. Very, very few have ever been rejected and then only because they violated our comments policy.