At her Texas Senate Nominations Committee hearing last month, State Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Cargill made a number of commitments should her appointment to a second term be confirmed. (It was.) Among those was a commitment to beef up qualifications required for individuals appointed by SBOE members to serve as “expert” advisers during the […]
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)
Texas CSCOPE Witch Hunt Continues
One of the worst things about political witch hunts is that they don’t end when the victim surrenders. No, the hunters often aren’t satisfied until the victim is burned at the stake. But sometimes the hunters sound so extreme that they become almost a parody of themselves. One can only hope that’s what is happening […]
Texas Senate Confirms Barbara Cargill as SBOE Chair
Today the Texas Senate unanimously confirmed Gov. Rick Perry’s appointment of Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, to a second term as chair of the State Board of Education (SBOE). This is the first time since 2005 that the Senate has confirmed a Perry-appointed SBOE chair. The governor’s previous two appointees, creationists Don McLeroy and Gail Lowe, […]
Cargill Grilled Again
This time the Q&A for Barbara Cargill, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) chair, is administered by Texas Monthly. And just like her appearance before the Senate Nominations Committee last week (or before the Senate Education Committee the week before), I don’t think these answers are going to put to rest concern in the science […]
Austin American-Statesman Editorial Warily Supports Cargill Confirmation
An Austin American-Statesman editorial comes out, reluctantly, for Barbara Cargill’s confirmation to another term as chair of the Texas State Board of Education. The newspaper’s reasoning: “(R)eality is that Cargill appears to have the votes. Were the nomination to be rejected, the question becomes whom the governor would nominate next. Two names that immediately surfaced […]
