The Texas Senate Nominations Committee will consider the reappointment of Barbara Cargill to another term as State Board of Education chair on Monday. Cargill is the third evolution-denier in a row appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to chair the board. The tenure of her two most recent predecessors — culture warriors Don McLeroy and Gail […]
State Board of Education
Told You So: Texas Ed Board Chair Wants Science Textbooks to Teach 'Another Side' on Evolution
We told you this would happen. In 2009, when the Texas State Board of Education adopted new science curriculum standards, we warned that creationists had inserted language they would later try to exploit to pressure publishers into including junk-science arguments against evolution in new textbooks. Barbara Cargill, the Republican state board chair from The Woodlands […]
Mixed Signals from the Texas State Board of Education
We saw signs at today’s State Board of Education meeting that the pendulum might finally be swinging back toward the center on the body that decides what 5 million students learn in Texas public schools. If borne out in coming months, those signs are encouraging for the adoption of science and social studies textbooks over […]
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 […]
TV Premiere of 'The Revisioniares' Tonight and Tuesday on PBS
Starting tonight, everyone gets a chance to watch the award-winning documentary “The Revisionaries,” a film by director Scott Thurman that tells the story of the religious right’s culture warriors at the Texas State Board of Education and the Texas Freedom Network’s efforts to stop their efforts to undermine instruction on evolution and politicize social studies […]
