Forget Minnesota's Michele Bachmann! Texas Has Its Own Wingnut!

The Austin Fishwrap followed the lead of this blog in calling out the wacko True Republican Woman on the Texas State Board of Education. To paraphrase KeithO, Cynthia Dunbar is today's "Worst Person In The World." Even battier than Dunbar are the wackos in SBOE District 10 who elected her in 2006. If this is (fair & balanced) Lone Star lunacy, so be it.

[x Austin Fishwrap]
Editorial: Directing Education From The Fringe

Cynthia Dunbar, Texas SBOE District 10

It is shameful that Cynthia Dunbar is overseeing public education in Texas. She is an embarrassment who has brought heaping amounts of ridicule to this state.

Who is Cynthia Dunbar? She is an elected member of the State Board of Education, representing parts of Austin and Travis County. And she is author of a bizarre attack on President-elect Barack Obama published on the Christian Worldview Network.

In it, Dunbar says there will be a terrorist attack on America "by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is [a] threat to tyranny." She goes on in the pre-election rant to say Obama will use that attack to declare martial law and expand his powers.

"I sincerely believe that an Obama Administration would ultimately mean one thing: the end of America as we know her," Dunbar wrote. "(W)e know all too well the attack this great Country undergoes on a daily basis from our own militant leftist Judicial Branch. Can you imagine how much worse this will get with Obama appointees?"

That could be dismissed as the ranting of a deluded right-wing conspiracy nut, but it was written by an elected state official, one overseeing the education of millions of Texas schoolchildren. Even after she was vilified for the disgraceful screed, Dunbar stood by what she wrote.

Dunbar, 43, was elected to the education board in 2006 from District 10, which includes the northern half of Austin and Travis County, as well as Bastrop, Williamson, Fayette, Lee, Milam and part of Fort Bend counties, among others. There are 15 education districts in Texas, each covering huge swaths of territory and multiple counties.

Education board elections occur under the radar, with few voters knowing anything about the candidates. In recent years, ultraconservatives have used the obscure nature of these elections to gain a foothold on the board to push a radical, anti-evolution, anti-intellectual agenda. And public education in Texas has suffered for it.

Dunbar has a law degree from Regent University, the Virginia school founded and run by conservative televangelist Pat Robertson. She lists herself as an anatomy teacher but won't tell even the Texas Education Agency at which school she teaches.

Although she was elected to supervise public education in Texas, Dunbar home schools her children. In fact, she was elected with the help of the Texas Home School Coalition. She lives in Richmond in Fort Bend County and ran in and lost the Republican primary earlier this year for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's congressional seat.

Dunbar has attacked the teaching of evolution in science classes — classes her home-schooled children don't attend — and appointed the director of a creationist institute to the task force looking at the state's science curriculum.

Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott expressed dismay about Dunbar's comments, saying they were unfortunate and regrettable. However, Scott and the Texas Education Agency have no jurisdiction over the elected board members.

It would be admirable if other state officials, including Governor Rick Perry and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, condemned Dunbar's seditious ravings. It is long past the time for state leaders to confront board members who make a mockery of public education in Texas.

Who is Cynthia Dunbar? She is a disgrace to public education and an embarrassment to Texas.

Copyright © 2008 The Austin American-Statesman

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