At her Texas Senate Nominations Committee hearing last month, State Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Cargill made a number of commitments should her appointment to a second term be confirmed. (It was.) Among those was a commitment to beef up qualifications required for individuals appointed by SBOE members to serve as “expert” advisers during the […]
Education
The Day Ahead: New SBOE Sworn In
UPDATE – 4:45 p.m. In something of a surprise, state board members revised their operating rules to require that amendments to proposed curriculum standards be filed by 5 p.m. the day before final adoption of the standards. Similar proposals failed twice over the past two years. We’ll have an update on the significance of this […]
Texas Public School Bible Courses: Christian Nationalism and Phony Quotations
Students in some Texas public school Bible courses learn that the Founding Fathers were largely orthodox Protestant Christians who intended for the United States to be a distinctively Christian nation with laws and a form of government based on the Bible. Countless historians and other scholars have shown how such claims are distortions, but those […]
Even Don McLeroy Gives a ‘Thumbs Up’ to TFN Education Fund’s Report on Bible Classes
Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy has an interesting Twitter post: “Ex-SBOE Chair @DonMcLeroy likes @TFN’s report on preachy Bible lessons: “I agree. That shouldn’t be in public schools.” Well, good for Don. Maybe he can help persuade fellow creationists who sit on the state board now that they should adopt real curriculum standards that […]
Epic Fail for Voucher ‘Expert’ in Texas School Finance Lawsuit
On Tuesday the lawsuit trial in Austin over how Texas finances its public schools featured one of the national leaders of the private school voucher movement. Testimony from Joseph Bast, the president and CEO of the pro-voucher Heartland Institute, should be instructive for Texas legislators preparing for battle over vouchers in the current session. That’s […]
