UPDATE: SMU faculty members have written an open letter critical of the Discovery Institute presentation on their campus. Last week the Seattle-based Discovery Institute descended on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas for another of its junk-science forums attempting to debunk evolutionary science. The event, “Four Nails in Darwin’s Coffin,” included a film and […]
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)
A Candidate for the Texas Education Board?
“Evolution is a myth. . . . Why aren’t monkeys still evolving into humans?” No, that’s not Ken “Dog-Cat/Cat-Rat” Mercer, the Republican State Board of Education member from San Antonio who thinks evidence against evolution is the fact that dog-cat and cat-rat mutants aren’t roaming the earth. The quote above comes from Christine O’Donnell, the […]
Board Takes Up Anti-Muslim Measure
The Texas State Board of Education is about to take up a proposed resolution attacking Islam and claiming that social studies textbooks are anti-Christian. TFN Insider will keep you updated on progress. 9:53 a.m. – We notice that board members Barbara Cargill and Don McLeroy have been going through world history textbooks currently used in […]
Gail Lowe: Putting Politics Over Education
Gail Lowe, chair of the Texas State Board of Education, is making the rounds promoting the state’s new social studies curriculum standards. And she’s making clear the political agenda she and other far-right board members are promoting in those standards: “Our country was founded on religious principles … and our students will know that. . […]
Rick Perry: Dumbing Down Science Education
The San Angelo Standard-Times last weekend reported this stunning comment from Gov. Rick Perry, the highest elected official in Texas government: “I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education […]
