On April 30 we reported that Texas State Board of Education members were appointing a social studies “expert” panel that includes unqualified ideologues who argue that the Constitution doesn’t protect church-state separation and want U.S. laws and public policies to be based on the Bible. We’ve also seen signs that anti-Muslim bigotry could play a big role […]
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)
Signs of Life for McLeroy Confirmation?
Texas State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, R-College Station, has been making the rounds of Senate offices this week with a lobbyist from Free Market Foundation Focus on the Family-Texas. The two are trying to turn the tide on McLeroy’s endangered confirmation for another term as board chairman. We hear from one Capitol office […]
McLeroy Confirmation Alert
Texas Freedom Network has just sent out the following Action Alert: Time and again over the last three years, Chairman Don McLeroy and the far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) have demonstrated their willingness to push an extremist agenda and sacrifice quality public education at the altar of partisan politics. Yet unbelievably, […]
“Christians Need Not Apply”
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 […]
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 […]
