Donna “Jeffrey Dahmer Believed in Evolution” Garner’s fiery email exchange with Texas State Board of Education member George Clayton this week included a particularly interesting tidbit you might have missed. Garner suggested a variety of reasons for supporting Gail “Pilgrims Were Commies” Spurlock as Clayton’s replacement on the board. Among them, she said, is that […]
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)
Yowza — Fiery Email Exchange Suggests Texas Education Board Race Could Get Very Heated
Texas State Board of Education member George Clayton’s guns are blazing in a searing email exchange that makes it clear he plans to run for re-election as a write-in candidate this November. Clayton finished third in the May 29 Republican primary for the Dallas-area, District 12 seat. Former state board member Geraldine “Tincy” Miller and […]
Tea Party Activist: ‘Confederate Flag Was Never Meant to Be Racial’
It looks like Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) members aren’t the only ones confused about the history of the old Confederacy during the American Civil War. Tea Party activists in New Mexico are defending the placement of a Confederate flag on a float in a Las Cruces parade marking the 100th anniversary of statehood […]
Why Letting Extremists Develop Curriculum Standards for Schools Is a Bad Idea
For reasons unknown, the conservative website Texas Insider insists on publishing the rants of a race-obsessed, right-wing activist. The newest rant from Bill Ames, who has criticized what he sees as an “overrepresentation of minorities” in social studies curriculum standards, once again claims that “leftists” hate America. And it’s predictably filled with ridiculous mistruths. In […]
Texas GOP Platform: Don’t Teach Kids Critical Thinking Skills!
Remember when Texas State Board of Education member David Bradley criticized teachers and scholars who were crafting new language arts and reading curriculum standards for Texas schools back in 2008? Having students actually think about what they were reading didn’t seem like a good idea to Bradley: “I’m sorry. This critical thinking stuff is gobbledygook.” Well, […]
