Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller, on the social studies textbook adoption at the State Board of Education.
It wouldn’t be a Texas textbook adoption without a flurry of last-minute objections from board members and political activists without any expertise on the subject at hand.
———————
Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University, on textbook adoptions at the Texas State Board of Education.
The danger is that you run the risk of having a textbook that indoctrinates as it educates.
———————
Josh Rosenau, the programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education, on publishers removing key passages from proposed Texas textbooks that cast doubt on climate science.
Pearson, McGraw-Hill and the other publishers did the right thing by making these changes. They listened to us and the nation’s leading scientific and educational societies, ensuring that students will learn the truth about the greatest challenge they’ll confront as citizens of the 21st century.
———————
Scholars David Brockman, Edward Countryman and Emile Lester, on the proposed social studies textbooks the State Board of Education will vote on this week. The three reviewed the books for the TFN Education Fund.
It’s troubling that publishers have missed an opportunity to lead students on a truthful exploration of the important influence religion has had in our nation’s history. They have instead essentially collaborated with politicians to make students’ knowledge of American history a casualty of the culture wars.
———————
Bill Sublette, chairman of the Orange County School Board in Florida, realizing that a policy the board approved that allows groups to distribute Bibles and even atheist materials in public schools might also open the door to Satanist groups that want to do the same.
This really has, frankly, gotten out of hand. I think we’ve seen a group or groups take advantage of the open forum we’ve had.
———————
Pat Robertson’s response to a viewer asking if it’s a sin to ignore speed limits.
You’re asking a guy that had a Corvette with a 430 horsepower engine, who is now driving a car that has about a 650 horsepower engine. Who also drove 30 laps around the Charlotte Motor Speedway in a stock car.
