Texas State Board of Education members are nit wits

[ensho]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/07/16/texas-may-bar-students-from-learning-about-cesar-chavez-thurgood-marshall/


Texas May Bar Students from Learning About Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall


United Farmworkers founder César Chávez is an unfitting role model for students, and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is not an appropriate historical figure. So say “expert reviewers” in their report to the Texas State Board of Education, which recommends removing the two U.S. leaders from the social studies curriculum taught to its 4.7 million public school students.

The ranting of these extremists has the potential to turn into mass censorship—Texas is such a mega-purchaser of textbooks that the state’s required curricula drives the content of textbooks produced nationwide.

The Texas Freedom Network, which monitors actions by religious reactionaries on the state’s school board, points out that two of the “expert reviewers” are unqualified to be on the panel and were appointed mainly because of their background as religious ideologues.
-snip-
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what a sorry State

[niyad]

1. I was on the textbook committee eons ago there, and dealing with the fundies and the crap

they wanted in the textbooks, and the intelligent information they wanted removed, made me want to tear my hair out, or really smack them upside the head. sorry to see that things have not improved.

I remember reading somewhere that, unfortunately, what TX wants in the way of "textbooks" is influential to the publishers--so kids all across the country are subjected to this idiocy.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

4. AMERICA'S EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM HAS BEEN ROTTED OUT BY THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

IT FAILED THE PARENTS AND NOW THEY ARE INFECTING THE CHILDREN

[ejpoeta]

2. so, where exactly does texas rank in education in this country.

it has to be down towards the bottom with the bs they want taught and not taught.

[marmar]

5. It is....It's near the very bottom.

.... and their Abstinence-Only brilliance has produced one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country.

[geckosfeet]

8. Yes. Everything is going according to plan.

[ejpoeta]

14. probably just as they want it. it's easier to control people who don't have

an education and have kids early.

[Buzz Clik]

3. More of the same. There are a few groups who pride themselves in dictating Texas curriculum.

No doubt, they are dead in the middle of this.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. What goes into Texas textbooks will impact many other states

As is noted in your link, this is not just a Texas educational issue. It's far more widespread than that.


This was in regards to the science texts, but it applies here as well.


Snip from the NYT in January:

The debate here has far-reaching consequences; Texas is one of the nation’s biggest buyers of textbooks, and publishers are reluctant to produce different versions of the same material.

Many biologists and teachers said they feared that the board would force textbook publishers to include what skeptics see as weaknesses in Darwin’s theory to sow doubt about science and support the Biblical version of creation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/education/22texas.html?_r=1

Snip from FOX in January:

A battle is brewing in Texas that could change the nation's science textbooks and the way evolution is taught in school.

<snip>

The significance of the Texas ruling could impact textbooks nationwide.

Since Texas is the second largest consumer of textbooks in the U.S., publishers often create a book that meets Texas standards and then sell the same version to school districts across the country.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506724,00.html



Final outcome on that vote:

Texas science education debate over - but the win is a loss

he final vote was cast today in Texas as to the fate of the "strengths and weaknesses" language that was proposed to be put back into science education standards. That idea was abandoned. However, this is not a time to celebrate.

Though that particular language was dismissed, what was voted in instead is equally disturbing. By a vote of 13-2, teachers will now be required "to encourage students to scrutinize 'all sides' of scientific theories," according to one report.

The problem with this is that there are many people who still contend that Intelligent Design, which is creationism in disguise, is a scientific proposition. No real scientist holds this to be true. The new language leaves science education open to the injection of creationism ideas. So, religion will now be an accepted part of the science curriculum. And this new standard will be in place for the next decade!

http://www.examiner.com/x-2430-Science-Examiner~y2009m3d27-Texas-science-education-debate-over--but-the-win-is-a-loss


These idiots are not just impacting Texas' educational standards. Which is what's really terrifying.

[LWolf]

7. Textbook publishers work for their biggest clients:

California and Texas being two of the biggest.

So yes, educational mismanagement by the states with bigger student populations definitely affects the rest.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Which is something the ones pushing these textbooks fully understand

They know the power they wield over much of the American educational system and are thrilled to be able to exploit it to reflect their agendas.

We're a nation in dire need of education reform, and yet most of the population don't even realize the flaws in our current system. If it weren't for groups such as The Texas Freedom Network fighting to limit the damage, our educational system would be all but completely be under the influence by these fools.

[LWolf]

12. They do understand it.

I don't think we'll see comprehensive, authentic, positive reform of public education until the rest of the nation starts listening to those on the front lines.

[LiberalFighter]

9. They should either require all states to have qualified members on their state boards

to decide the content of school books or it should be decided by a national panel of experts. Maybe a representative from each state.

[Odin2005]

10. This is part of the reason education is fucked up in this country.

State education boards and local school district boards are where ideologues, lunatics and wannabe social engineers insinuate themselves.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Exactly right, and in this case the agendas of a few dictate the educational standards of many

Still most people in the country dismiss the issue as those "nit wits" being the lone burden of residents of Texas. Which couldn't be further from the truth.

[awnobles]

15. Rick Perry

is completely responsible for appointing the nitwits. He must be unelected next time.