A link to the audio of today’s State Board of Education meeting is here. 9:00 – Today the Texas State Board of Education finally decides what the next generation of Texas students will learn about evolution in their public school science classrooms. The morning preliminaries are ceremonial, but we expect debate on the science curriculum […]
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 Lets the Cat Out of the Bag
Watch this short clip of State Board of Education chairman Don McLeroy explaining the true motivation behind his two amendments to proposed Texas science standards dealing with common descent and natural selection: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKw-odMIKjU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etfn%2Eorg%2Fsite%2FPageServer&feature=player_embedded] We’ll say this for McLeroy – he’s not trying to hide his intent. The purpose of his amendments is to cause kids to question […]
Science Under Siege in Texas
OK, we’ve had a little time to digest all that went on today at the Texas State Board of Education. Without going through each of the many amendments that passed, here’s essentially what happened. This morning the board slammed the door on bringing creationism into classrooms through phony “weaknesses” arguments. But then board members turned […]
Live Blogging the Texas Science Debate IV
2:56 – Barbara Cargill now offers an amendment for Earth and Space Science designed to challenge the Big Bang theory. She wants teachers to tell students that there are different estimates of the age of the universe. (Like, maybe billions of years vs. 10,000?) 3:00 – Cargill says she has no intention to open the […]
Live Blogging the Texas Science Debate III
1:43 – Sometimes the hypocrisy is really astounding. The anti-evolution Discovery Institute is harshly criticizing State Board of Education member Rick Agosto for asking that creationists remove their anti-evolution signs from the board room. Says the Disco: Apparently Texas Board of Education member Rick Agosto isn’t just content to censor science by removing any criticisms […]