Live-Blogging the Texas Science Textbook Hearing (2013)

5:29 – That’s a wrap. We’re calling this hearing a lopsided victory for science. Thanks, everyone. Watch the blog tomorrow for video of former SBOE chair Don McLeroy’s strange and confusing return to the board as a member of the public, and other fall-out from today’s hearing. For pictures from today’s science rally (and virtual […]

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TFN Will Be Live-Blogging, Tweeting the Texas SBOE's Science Textbook Hearing Today

“Any statements made were my own personal beliefs.” That’s how Karen Beathard, an official state textbook reviewer, defends telling publishers that the biology textbooks they submitted for adoption in Texas this year should include “creation science based on biblical principles.” Her statement encapsulates precisely the problem with the science textbook adoption process in Texas. Some […]

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Cargill: 'I'm one of you'

Another first-hand report from the science review panel meeting last month in Austin has emerged, and it seems to corroborate some of the concerns about the flawed process expressed last week by biology panel participant Jimmy Gollihar. Specifically, it raises more questions about what State Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, was doing […]

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Teachers, Not Politics, Should Determine Textbooks for Schools

The Houston Chronicle today published the following opinion column by Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller about the adoption of new science textbooks for Texas public schools this year: The State Board of Education is marching once again toward a showdown over what Texas students should learn in their public school science classrooms. And with political shenanigans […]

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Texas Textbook Reviewers and Ernst Haeckel

All of us at the Texas Freedom Network are grateful for our friends at the National Center for Science Education. NCSE has been a fantastic partner in our battles at the State Board of Education, including the current debate over proposed new science textbooks for Texas public schools. Josh Rosenau, NCSE’s programs and policy director, […]

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