The mischief-making of social conservatives on the State Board of Education has drawn the bipartisan attention of members of the Texas Legislature. What has drawn their attention is the demonstrated interest of those conservatives in ideology over education. So they propose to put the responsibility of education in the hands of educators, not board members with a political ax to grind.
Excerpted from an editorial in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Those social conservatives, including Board Chairman Don McLeroy, R-College Station, recently came close to forcing Texas teachers and their students to perpetrate academic fraud by including a mandate that Texas classrooms discuss the "weaknesses" of the theory of evolution. They lost, but inserted enough amendments in specific course curriculums to weaken the teaching of science.
The evolution fight was only the latest incident in which members with a conservative ideology have attempted to reshape education to their world view. In rewriting the English and language arts curriculum, the conservatives demonstrated what value they place on the opinions of educators: they ditched recommendations from panels of English and language arts teachers and substituted their own. The conservatives have gained strength on the 15-member elected board because of the ability of conservatives to win elections to a State Board whose role is obscure to much of the public.
Three Republican senators joined by a Democratic senator believe that education is at risk in the hands of the state board given its recent history. A measure co-authored by the four would strip the board of its authority to set curriculum and choose textbooks for public schools. Speaking to the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, said, "I'm not sure we're serving the best interests of our children at this time."
Averitt said the meddling in education comes from Democrats, too, but the point is that education is not at the forefront. That means that Texas schoolchildren who need to be educated for the workplace or who have ambitions of going on to college and selective universities around the country are being shortchanged because of the State Board's repeated efforts to undermine educational standards. Read the full editorial here.