Sen. Dan Patrick Admits He Hasn't Read CSCOPE Lessons He Wants to Ban Teachers from Using

This very short clip from last weekend’s debate between State Board of Education Vice Chairman Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, and state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, highlights how the manufactured “controversy” over CSCOPE eventually oozed out of the right-wing fever swamps. Tea party and other political activists (including a for-profit political consulting company) have absurdly claimed that the […]

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Full CSCOPE Debate Now Online

If you missed last Saturday’s CSCOPE debate between State Board of Education vice chair Thomas Ratliff, R-Mt. Pleasant, and state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, here it is in its entirety. On one side, you had an SBOE member who showed up with facts. On the other, you had an ambitious politician running for higher office […]

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CSCOPE Issue Takes Hypocrisy-Fueled Leap Back into the Spotlight

The absurd, manufactured controversy over CSCOPE in Texas is leaping back into the spotlight. And that spotlight is illuminating just how hypocritical some of the curriculum tool’s political critics really are. On Friday State Board of Education Vice Chair Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, and state Senate Education Committee Chair Dan Patrick, R-Houston, announced that they have agreed […]

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CSCOPE Witch Hunt Flares Up Again: Sen. Patrick and AG Abbott Target Educators

Just two months after gutting a curriculum tool that nearly 900 Texas school districts were using, state Sen. Dan Patrick and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have decided they’re not done harassing educators and wasting taxpayer dollars. Last week Patrick called on the Texas State Auditor’s Office to review the operations of the Texas Education […]

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Texas SBOE Vice Chair Ratliff Rips Sen. Patrick Again Over CSCOPE Witch Hunt: Bullying and Burning Books

Texas State Board of Education Vice Chairman Thomas Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, has already made clear his disgust over the political witch hunt that forced the state’s Education Service Centers to stop writing lesson plans in their CSCOPE curriculum management system. In May, for example, he tore into Senate Education Committee Chairman Dan Patrick, R-Houston, for […]

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