TFN EDUCATION FUND RELEASES VOTER GUIDE
Guide Focuses on Education, Includes Statewide, Legislative and SBOE Races
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2010
With a State Board of Education mired in seemingly endless “culture war” battles, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund has released a 2010 voter guide focused on education reform.
“With the state board drawing national attention – and ridicule – to Texas, our polling this spring showed voters want a cease-fire in the education culture wars,” TFN Education Fund President Kathy Miller said. “So we wanted voters this year to know where candidates for public office stand on protecting curriculum, textbooks and our children’s classrooms from the personal and political agendas of board members.” (See the TFN Education Fund poll report here.)
The TFN Education Fund sent questionnaires to candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state comptroller, agriculture commissioner, railroad commissioner, the State Board of Education (SBOE), and legislative seats. The questionnaire asked for candidates’ positions on six key issues:
• whether teachers and scholars or elected SBOE members should write curriculum and textbook requirements
• whether the SBOE should be subject to review by the Sunset Advisory Commission
• whether elections for the SBOE should be nonpartisan
• whether management of the Permanent School Fund should be put in the hands of financial experts instead of SBOE members
• whether experts tasked with helping revise curriculum standards and adopting textbooks should meet minimum qualifications
• whether SBOE members should be required to pre-file proposed amendments to curriculum standards during board debates
The voter guide and candidate responses are available here.
“For too long now, parents have watched state board members make curriculum and textbook decisions based on their own personal and political agendas,” Miller said. “This guide will help voters who are concerned about whether our schoolchildren are getting an education that prepares them to succeed in college and their future careers.”
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The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund is a nonpartisan research and citizen education organization focusing on public education, religious freedom and civil liberties.
