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 […]
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)
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: […]
Ed Board Extremists Target Social Studies
Having done what they could to muck up the state’s science curriculum standards, fringe right-wingers on the Texas State Board of Education are now moving to politicize the social studies curriculum for public schools. Texas Freedom Network just sent out the following press release: The Texas State Board of Education is set to appoint a […]
McLeroy Confirmation Chances Get Slimmer
The Texas Senate Nominations Committee this evening approved all nominees considered at last week’s hearing — except for Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education. Far-right pressure groups have targeted Senate offices with calls and e-mails in support of McLeroy’s confirmation, but opponents in that chamber still appear to have the votes […]
