UPDATE: See more about the New York Times Magazine cover image here. The New York Times Magazine has just published online a major piece about the Texas State Board of Education and its role in promoting far-right efforts to hijack public education in America. The article will also appear in the Sunday Times’ print edition. […]
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)
Talking Points
From today’s TFN News Clips: “We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of […]
SBOE Candidates Debate Tonight, Thursday
Tonight a Bryan radio station will air a debate between Texas State Board of Education incumbent Don McLeroy and his Republican challenger Thomas Ratliff. The debate can be heard live 6-7 p.m. on KEOS radio, 89.1 FM. The program will also be recorded and available to listeners on the KEOS Web site after the debate. […]
Truth Is Hard for Ideologues
Randy Rives has a new campaign Web site, but he’s got an awful fact-checker. Rives is the former Ector County Independent School District (Odessa) board chair. He’s challenging District 15 State Board of Education incumbent Bob Craig in the March 2 Republican Primary — a race providing the far right’s best chance to win another […]
Texas SBOE: Twisting Facts Again
Texas State Board of Education members have been beating their chests about an Education Week study that gives the state an “A” in curriculum development. At last month’s state board meeting, for example, they used the study to trash critics who have (correctly) warned about the damage the board’s far-right faction has done the last […]
