We suppose having a sense of humor is important when elected officials are turning your state into a national laughingstock. Religion Dispatches offers a shocking photo of the rare “dog-cat” that Texas State Board of Education member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, must have been talking about during the recent debate over teaching about evolution. Mercer […]
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)
NPR Examines Texas Science Battle
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, will talk about the battle over science curriculum standards for Texas public schools on NPR’s Science program Friday (April 10). The program airs from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern time. Check here for a list of stations carrying the program. Our friends at NCSE […]
Even Right-Wingers Stay Informed with TFN
We are grateful to TFN Insider visitors who say our blog has rapidly become an important news resource on issues ranging from science and science education to defending separation of church and state and religious freedom in Texas. So we were extra pleased to see Texas State Board of Education member David Bradley, R-Beaumont Buna, following along with TFN […]
More Evidence for Natural Selection, Chairman
Don McLeroy, the esteemed evolutionary biologist dentist and creationist who serves as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, spent a lot of time last month trying to persuade his fellow board members that scientific evidence for natural selection is wrong. Perhaps he should read this piece from the New York Times: In a worldwide […]
Defying Reason
The far-right American Family Association is peddling a new DVD series proclaiming that the world’s living wonders can’t possibly be explained by science. Check out the Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution Series here. The videos feature Jobe Martin, a dentist whose The Evolution of a Creationist lectures are all the rage among the anti-evolution crowd. (Another […]
