The conservative website Texas Insider calls Gail Spurlock’s bizarre history lesson about the Pilgrims its “quote of the week” “from Republicans behaving badly.” Spurlock is running in the GOP primary for the Dallas-area District 12 seat on the State Board of Education. From Texas Insider: “If one states the Pilgrims were radicals seeking a communist-socialist […]
Education
Texas has an increasingly diverse public education system with a public school enrollment of more than 5 million. Unfortunately, that public education system is also the target of right-wing extremists seeking to privatize our neighborhood public schools and push a culture-war agenda in the classroom.
To that end, Texas Freedom Network tirelessly fights for Texas public school students at the Capitol — opposing private school voucher legislation, sticking up for students’ freedoms, advocating for truthful, censorship-free lessons and textbooks, and more. We’ve also conducted groundbreaking research into what is taught in classrooms on subjects like sex education and religion.
Resources
- Teach the Truth: Texans United Against Censorship in Education
- Can This Class Be Saved? The ‘Hobby Lobby’ Public School Bible Curriculum (2014 report)
- Reading, Writing & Religion II (2013 report)
- Sex Education in Public Schools: Progress in the Lone Star State (2011 report)
- Just Say Don’t Know: Sex Education in Texas Public Schools (2009 report)
- The State Board of Education: Dragging Texas Schools into the Culture Wars (2008 report)
- Reading Writing & Religion: Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools (2006 report)
- Broken Promises II (2001 report)
- Broken Promises: Charter Schools in Texas (2000 report)
Texas Ed Board Candidate Doubles Down on ‘Pilgrims Were Communists’ Claim
Gail Spurlock, a Republican candidate for the District 12 seat on the Texas State Board of Education, has written a “clarification” of her contention that the Pilgrims nearly destroyed their colony and themselves because they practiced communism. In an email being circulated today by supporter Donna “Jeffrey Dahmer Believed in Evolution” Garner, Spurlock suggests that […]
National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy: Support Sex Education in Texas
Today is the 11th Annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. The Texas Freedom Network continues to promote responsible, evidence-based sex education in Texas, a state with one of the highest teen birthrates in the nation. You can help by signing a petition calling for comprehensive sex education to keep young people safe and healthy. […]
Handful of Contests See the Most Money in Texas State Board of Education Races
In the 1990s, San Antonio businessman James Leininger — the religious right’s sugar daddy in Texas — poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into State Board of Education (SBOE) races. That money helped hard-right social conservatives build a multi-year campaign to take control of the board — and turned subsequent board debates over textbooks and […]
‘The Revisionaries’ Earns Special Recognition at Tribeca Film Festival
Congratulations to director Scott Thurman, his great film crew, editors and producers! “The Revisionaries” — a documentary film about the State Board of Education in Texas — won a special jury recognition at the Tribeca Film Festival tonight in New York. Filmmaker Michael Moore presented the award and high praise. We’re hoping more people will […]
