The Foundation for Thought and Ethics, a prominent creationist group, has reversed a stated intention to submit instructional materials this year for use in Texas science classrooms. That decision, publicized on FTE’s website, is very good news for supporters of sound science education and students in Texas public schools. On the other hand, it almost […]
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)
Anti-Science: Georgia Edition
Here’s U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Georgia, repeatedly rejecting evolutionary science on Friday. Think maybe creationists on the Texas State Board of Education will try appointing Kingston to a panel that reviews science instructional materials for public schools this spring? […]
Texas SBOE E-mails: Politicizing Science
Texas State Board of Education members are already moving to politicize the adoption of new instructional materials for public school science classes in Texas this spring. E-mails obtained by the Texas Freedom Network on Wednesday through a request under the state’s open records law make that pretty clear. In an e-mail exchange last November, for […]
McLeroy’s Heir
If you were wondering who would carry the anti-science banner on the State Board of Education after the departure of Don McLeroy, ladies and gentlemen, meet Representative Carlos “Charlie” Garza, R-El Paso: Last year my son came to me and started talking about global warming… and I showed him research that said that there is […]
More on the Foundation for Thought and Ethics
Yesterday, TFN broke the news that a creationist organization had formally notified the State Board of Education of its intention to submit materials for the upcoming science adoption. And not just any creationist organization — the Foundation for Thought and Ethics (FTE) is the publisher of the infamous textbook Of Pandas and People that landed […]
