That is the title of a new screed by SBOE Rep. Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio. According to Mercer, the Senate is blocking the nomination of Don McLeroy as board chair not because his tenure has been an unmitigated disaster, but because McLeroy is — you guessed it — a Christian. It is official; conservative Christians are unqualified […]
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)
Another Pro-Science Conservative
A couple of our readers have pointed to an example of how the debate over science education has divided conservative ranks. Joel Walker is a candidate for the local school board in College Station, home of Texas State Board of Education chairman Don McLeroy. While we can’t endorse Mr. Walker’s candicacy, we found his perspective on science […]
The Right Is Riled Up about SBOE Bills
Far-right groups are blasting out e-mails calling on their foot soldiers to contact legisators in opposition to bills that would rein in the Texas State Board of Education’s authority. We wonder: why aren’t mainstream conservative groups coming out in opposition to common-sense legislation that puts management of the Permanent School Fund in the hands of real […]
McLeroy, His Second Cousin and Evolution
At his Senate confirmation hearing on April 22, Texas State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy once again rejected the expertise of hundreds of scientists, including Nobel laureates, who called on the board not to dumb down the public school science curriculum on evolution last month. Chairman McLeroy insisted, however, that he has a second […]
Flu: Why Studying Evolution Matters
Texas State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy has argued repeatedly that natural selection — he calls it “unguided natural processes” — doesn’t account for the diversity of life today. He also insists that understanding evolution isn’t really important to the study of the biological sciences. Well, Chairman McLeroy, meet the “swine flu.” Wendy Orent, author of “Plague: […]
