The State Senate of Texas, in the past legislative session, refused to reappoint the Don McLeroy (R-College Station) as the chair of the SBOE. Rebuffed, Governor Goodhair turned to Gail Lowe (R-Lampasas) who was not a figure of controversy in the anti-science uproar that sank McLeroy's reappointment. Now, the State of Texas has a religious zealot as SBOE chair who would Christianize history teaching. Instead of anti-evolution, the new SBOE chair would expect Texas teachers to proclaim that the United States (and Texas) were — and always have been — Christian. The Dumbos were galvanized by the words of the Obama inaugural address that "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers." Lowe and the other Dumbos on the Texas SBOE want to eliminate all but the Christian-contribution to the history of the this country. Interestingly, the Texas House of Representatives elected a Jewish member, Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) as Speaker during the past session. The horror of the Dumbos (in the words of their fellow-traveling religious bigots) at having a "dirty Jew" as House Speaker has made the Christianizing of the public school curriculum more imperative. In the State Senate, the SBOE-nonsense has been confronted by another Jew, Kelton (Kel) Seliger (R-Amarillo) and the Dumbo bigotry has been stoked even higher. If the Dumbos had gas chambers and ovens, they would be hummin' right now. If this is a (fair & blaanced) attack on religious intolerance, so be it.
[x TX SBOE]
State Board of Education (Lowe, first row, 2nd from left; Allen, second row, 3rd from right; Leo, second row, 2nd from right)
GAIL LOWE (R-Lampasas), Chair — newspaper publisher, BS (LSU)
LAWRENCE A. ALLEN, JR. (D-Houston), Vice Chair — secondary education administrator, BS and MS (Prairie View A&M)
TERRI LEO (R-Spring), Secretary — retired special education teacher, BEd. (North Dakota) and MEd. (Texas A&M-Commerce)
COMMITTEE ON INSTRUCTION:
BARBARA CARGILL (R-The Woodlands), Chair — science education consultant, BS (Baylor) and MS (TWU)
KEN MERCER (R-San Antonio), Vice Chair — former state representative, BS (UT-Austin), BBA (UT-San Antonio), and MBA (St. Mary;s)
LAWRENCE A. ALLEN, JR. (See above.)
TERRI LEO (See above.)
GERALDINE MILLER (R-Dallas) — real estate broker, BS (SMU) and MS (Texas A&M-Commerce)
COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL FINANCE/PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND:
DAVID BRADLEY (R-Beaumont), Chair — insurance and real estate sales, attended (UH-Central and Texas A&M)
RICK AGOSTO (D-San Antonio), Vice Chair — financial sales and marketing, attended (UT-San Antonio)
CYNTHIA NOLAND DUNBAR (R-Richmond) — science educator and attorney, BS (Missouri-KC) and JD (Regent)
GAIL LOWE (See above.)
RENE NUÑEZ (D-El Paso) — real estate broker, BA (UTEP) and MA (Chapman)
COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL INITIATIVES:
BOB CRAIG (R-Lubbock), Chair — attorney, BBA (Texas Tech) and JD (SMU)
MAVIS B. KNIGHT (D-Dallas), Vice Chair — community volunteer, BA and MA (NC Central)
MARY HELEN BERLANGA (D-Corpus Christi) — attorney, BA (UH-Central) and JD (South Texas)
PATRICIA HARDY (R-Weatherford) — retired history/geography teacher, BA (Howard Payne) and MEd. (UNT)
DON McLEROY (R-College Station) — dentist, BSEE (Texas A& M) and DDS (UT-Houston)
_________________________
[x Austin Fishwrap]
Social Studies Will Be Next Battle For State Board Of Education
By Kate Alexander
Tag Cloud of the following article
Fresh off a contentious battle about science curriculum during the spring, the State Board of Education is girding for a fight over social studies that could make the last one look like a mild skirmish.
Potential controversies appear on virtually every page of history, government, culture and economics that Texas school children learn.
There could be tussles over the role of the Bible and Christian influence on the founding of the United States; debates on which historical figures warrant a spotlight role; and hand-wringing over students learning about the "republican process" — not the "democratic process" — because the U.S. is a republic as well as a democracy.
Politics and ideology will be front and center in each of those decisions by the 15-member elected State Board of Education over the next nine months. That is exactly how it should be, Board Member Don McLeroy said.
"Texans have decided that education is too important to be left to bureaucrats and unelected folks," McLeroy said.
But other observers say the political warfare over curriculum is getting in the way of crafting standards that prepare students for college and the workplace.
The system is no longer working in the best interest of the students when the political goals overshadow the educational goals, said Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo.
"This is important to the process of learning, and teaching, and it should be done by experts," Seliger said.
The standards serve as the foundation for textbooks, standardized tests and the classroom lessons developed at the school district level. The social studies standards will not be finalized until next spring.
The objective should be to create standards that are rigorous, coherent, clear and teachable, said Mike Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based education think tank that regularly reviews state curriculum standards.
States that have done that well have used a small group of subject-area experts who are focused on what students need to know to succeed and have protected that group from political pressure.
"This is an inherently political process. You can't take the politics out of it entirely," particularly in subjects such as social studies, said Petrilli, a former education official in the George W. Bush administration. "We should be honest that there is no perfect way to do this."
At this point, there seems to be little political will to change the process in Texas.
A Seliger bill to move the curriculum decisions out of the hands of the State Board of Education did not get a vote in the Senate Education Committee.
State Rep. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, a former member of the State Board of Education, introduced a bill to review the curriculum adoption process; it also stalled in committee.
House Public Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, said the process works when the State Board of Education gathers sufficient input and uses it. But controversy is inevitable because people from across the political spectrum have strong opinions about what students should learn, he said.
"Not everybody loves the result, but that's what the process is for ... and that's what elections are for," Eissler said.
The Fordham Institute's review of Texas' existing U.S. history standards, which are part of the social studies curriculum, found that they push a political agenda.
"American, and especially Texan, history is glorified," according to the 2006 study. "The documents avoid the less laudable parts of the nation's and states' histories — such as Jim Crow and the KKK — and instead point to, for example, oil and gas companies as manifestations of the wonders of laissez-faire capitalism."
The political agenda is not likely to go away. Three of the six reviewers appointed by the board to examine the current standards have urged a greater focus on the religious influences on the origin of the country and political system.
"In light of the overwhelming historical evidence of the influence of the Christian faith in the founding of America, it is simply not up to acceptable academic standards that throughout the social studies (standards) I could find only one reference to the role of religion in America's past," wrote Peter Marshall, a Presbyterian minister from Massachusetts whose mission, according to his Web site, is to "restore America to its Bible-based foundations."
The appointments of Marshall and David Barton, founder of the religious organization Wallbuilders, as expert reviewers have prompted calls to create minimum qualifications for experts. Neither of them has an academic background in the social studies disciplines.
Setting minimum qualifications would ensure that "real experts" are weighing in rather than ideologues, said Dan Quinn, spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group that is often critical of the board's conservative bent.
"We end up having a culture war debate instead of debate on real scholarship because we don't have real scholars on the expert panel," Quinn said. "That is a waste of time, and it is also a disservice to students and their families."
McLeroy disagreed that parameters need to be set for who provides the board advice. And that suggestion landed with a thud when raised at a board meeting Wednesday.
"If two (board) members think they're qualified, they're qualified," McLeroy said. Ω
[Kate Alexander is the State Desk Reporter for the Austin Fishwrap. She holds a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.A, in journalism from the University of Maryland-College Park.]
Copyright © 2009 The Austin American-Statesman
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