Thomas Ratliff Takes on Tea Party Over CSCOPE Panic
As the Great CSCOPE Controversy of 2013 continues on its baffling way, State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff has emerged as the embattled program’s most outspoken defender at the state level—one of the very few elected officials willing to wade into tea party waters and pick a fight.
Democrats have mostly stayed out of the controversy over the state-produced curriculum tool and its supposedly un-American, anti-Christian classroom lessons. As Rep. Dawnna Dukes put it on the House floor in May, ”CSCOPE is not a concept that Democrats even know about.” So rural superintendents looking for a little cover from Austin have found support from Ratliff, a Republican from Mount Pleasant.
“I think Democrats are probably enjoying this,” he says, “because this is yet another example of the Republican Party eating its own young—and people like Dan Patrick are only accelerating the state’s conversion from red to purple.”
(New Democratic SBOE member Marisa Perez has been one entertaining exception, complaining about Patrick’s grandstanding back in May and, more recently, suggesting he’s trying to claim the title of “Academic Tool Czar online.”)
More at http://www.texasobserver.org/cscope-drama-stokes-tea-party-anger-at-sboes-thomas-ratliff/ .