UPDATE: Nathan Bernier at Austin’s public radio station, KUT, also talked to Clayton. One thing is becoming clear: he’s not an ideologue. He calls arguments about teaching “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution just “code words for creationism.” Check out the interview here. George Clayton‘s Republican primary victory over longtime Texas State Board of Education incumbent Geraldine “Tincy” Miller […]
Textbook Censorship
The Texas State Board of Education decides what every student in Texas public schools will learn from kindergarten through high school. The board does so by adopting curriculum standards and textbooks for public schools in the state.
For decades, far-right politicians on the State Board of Education and their extremist allies have taken advantage of this flawed system to dismiss the advice of experts and scholars. They have instead worked to inject their personal views into textbooks on everything from evolution and climate change to the history of slavery, civil rights, and separation of church and state.
Resources
- Report Reveals Serious Flaws in Social Studies Textbooks
- The State Board of Education: Dragging Texas Schools into the Culture Wars (2008 report)
- Evolution, Creationism & Public Schools: Surveying Texas Scientists (2008 report)
- Culture Wars and the Classroom (2010 report)
- Senate Bill 6: Changes in the Textbook Adoption Process (2011 report)
- Texas Science Curriculum Standards: Challenges (2012 report)
- Science Textbook Review (2013 report)
- Social Studies Textbook Review (2014 report)
Voters Spank Far Right in SBOE Elections
First, the good news: At least two members of the Texas State Board of Education’s far-right faction won’t be there in 2011. Cynthia “Public Education Is a Tool of Perversion” Dunbar, R-Richmond, got so much heat for her extremism — including outrageous attacks on public schools — that she decided not to run for re-election. […]
McLeroy, Mercer Get Late Money
Houston homebuilder Bob Perry put $5,000 into College Station incumbent Don McLeroy‘s shaky State Board of Education campaign on Friday, according to a “telegram” report published on the Texas Ethics Commission Web site late today. San Antonio incumbent Ken Mercer also reported $1,200 in late contributions from two donors (but not Perry) over the weekend. […]
Bill Ames on Abortion and the SBOE
Bill Ames, appointed by Texas State Board of Education member Don McLeroy to a social studies curriculum writing team, has commented on our post about the relevance of abortion politics to the state board. We are reposting Mr. Ames’ comment here in its entirety: I will explain exactly what abortion politics have to do with […]
Now They’re Dragging Abortion into It
UPDATE: A TFN Insider reader recorded the robocall noted in this post. Great work! See below. The calls apparently were paid for by Texas Alliance for Life PAC. Because of the late date, it won’t be possible to know before election day tomorrow how much this political action committee has suddenly poured into State Board […]
