It’s time for our annual review of what we heard from the far right over the past year. We’ll start with some of the nonsense uttered by members of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) in 2010. “One of the first real breaches of limited government was public education.” — SBOE member Don McLeroy, […]
State Board of Education
Maybe He Wants to Be on the Texas SBOE
Remember the revisionist history that members of the Texas State Board of Education were pushing in the debate over new social studies curriculum standards? This was especially evident in efforts by some board members to whitewash American history when it came to race and civil rights issues. At one point board member Don McLeroy even […]
Politics, Curriculum and Textbooks
The religious right doesn’t just target science and social studies when it comes to politicizing public school classrooms. The movement’s pressure groups attack education on a broad front, pushing a divisive agenda throughout the public school curriculum — including even reading and English classes. Educational Research Analysts, the old right-wing warhorse of the textbooks “culture […]
Petty Politics at the SBOE
Just before each legislative session, the Texas State Board of Education votes on a list of education priorities they want state lawmakers to consider. With redistricting and closing a massive budget deficit likely to take up the bulk of the Legislature’s time, one would think that state board members would be careful in choosing their […]
Cynthia Dunbar’s ‘Parting Gift’
On Thursday outgoing Texas State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, offered what she called a “parting gift” to fellow board members. Her “gift”: a proposed board resolution attacking federal involvement in education as unconstitutional and calling for state “nullification” of “unconstitutional directives” from the federal government. Not surprisingly, the resolution reads like a […]