We’ve already told you about Mary Lou “President Obama Was a Gay Prostitute” Bruner, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the District 9 seat on the Texas State Board of Education. The political activist and retired teacher appears to have the support of a number of religious-right and tea-party activists. But a candidate forum hosted by […]
Textbook Censorship
Right-wing Candidate for Texas Ed Board Isn’t Happy with TFN
We told you last week about the outrageous things Texas State Board of Education candidate Mary Lou Bruner publicly claims on her Facebook page. Among them: that President Obama was a gay prostitute so that he could fund his drug addiction, that Democrats conspired to assassinate President Kennedy, that evolution “is a religious philosophy … supporting the religion of […]
2016 Elections: This Year’s Extremist Candidate for the Texas State Board of Education
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) has a regrettable — but reliable — history of mixing the culture wars with public education. And, it seems, almost every election cycle — eight of the 15 SBOE seats are up for election this year — at least one candidate promises to make things even worse. This […]
Progress in Texas Textbook Battle: Publishers Agree to Key Changes
As the State Board of Education prepares this week to vote on which new social studies textbooks to approve for Texas public schools, we are encouraged that publishers are making a number of changes to problematic passages in their texts. In each of these instances, publishers are responding to serious concerns by scholars working with […]
2016 Elections: Eight Texas SBOE Seats on the Ballot this November
You already know it’s a presidential election year. It’s also an election year for the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), with eight of the board’s 15 seats on ballots all across the state this November. SBOE races don’t always get much attention, which is unfortunate because if you’ve followed us here you probably know […]
