Creationist Climate-Deniers Reviewing Texas Textbooks May Help Set a National Standard

[marmar]

(Truthout) Texas educators selected by the State Board of Education (SBOE) and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to review textbooks for adoption in November 2013 are insisting upon changes to major science and biology instructional materials that would contradict the widely established international scientific consensuses on the subjects of evolution and human-caused climate change.

If major education publishers such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson and McGraw-Hill Publishers buckle under the pressure of religious fundamentalists in Texas aiming to cast doubt on two of the most widely supported scientific concepts in history, the changes that will affect Texas public schools for the next 10 years could become part of a larger trend affecting science education across the nation. Texas could set this national precedent because major publishers typically cater their educational materials toward the large Texas market first then make small changes to those materials for smaller markets around the country.

The Texas SBOE goes through a process of review and adoption of classroom materials every 10 years and throughout the decades the process has come under fire regarding the amount of influence reviewers have in convincing publishers to make crucial changes to science and biology texts.

Members of the SBOE can nominate individuals for the review panels, but individual citizens can nominate themselves to serve. The TEA then looks at the list of nominees and assigns the selected individuals to review teams for specific instructional products. These appointed panels have been evaluating drafts of mostly electronic classroom materials and negotiating the content with publishers since July, with much of the review process taking place in private. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19049-creationist-climate-deniers-reviewing-texas-textbooks-may-help-set-the-national-standard-for-science-education

[jsr]

1. We need Wendy Davis to appoint a new chair for the State Board of Education

and a new Commissioner of Education for the Texas Education Agency.

[Jefferson23]

2. For crying out loud, this is pure fraud. Can a class action suit or other civil suit be brought

against a publication that prints false information intentionally, I wonder. I would hope it could
because the case would allow for depositions and release of information on who, what where
and when they crafted this bullshit. It could possibly also bring in for testimony the scientific community
and the accepted scientific analysis.

Would these publishers appreciate the exposure of their unethical practices? I doubt it and are these
same publishers providing other important texts for the university level?

Crooks and liars, is that what children deserve providing them information?

[SamKnause]

3. Books

Who chose Texas as the state responsible for the majority of textbooks ?

Another state needs to be selected.

Identify the problem.

Implement the solution.

It is extremely sad and destructive that the U.S. does not operate in this fashion.

Our politicians seem to be the cause of the problems and they are not interested in solutions for the problems they have caused.

[Blue Idaho]

7. Exactly.

FWIW the whole textbook industry is in a world of hurt right now. The emergence of new sources and low cost, readily available eTexts are currently kicking the crap out of the old standby publishers. If a number of more liberal states made it clear that they would not order books that feature extremist views as mainstream science, history, or literature - companies like Houghton Miflin, Harcort Brace, and Little Brown would have to rethink the Texas Paradigm.

[xchrom]

4. du rec.

[mainer]

5. Why can't California dictate textbook terms just as well?

Texas may be large, but California/Oregon/Washington/NY/Connecticut/New England must have at least equal influence on what goes into those textbooks.

[truebluegreen]

8. Something I have always wondered:

California is bigger (by itself), so why cater to Texas?

[DGeorge]

6. Hmm. "TEA" - what a shock. Let ignorance rule.