- Texas Ed Board Candidate Doubles Down on 'Pilgrims Were Communists' Claim
- More From Ed Board Candidate Spurlock: No Sex Ed, Kids 'Are Gonna Figure It Out on Their Own' Anyway
- Former Texas Ed Board Creationist Don McLeroy on Colbert Report Tonight
- Former Texas SBOE Member: Opposition to Teaching Creationism in Science Classrooms Is Like 'Pre-Holocaust Germany'
- Texas Ed Board Candidate Advocates Teaching Creationism in Science Classrooms
- Early Voting Begins in Texas: Vote in State Board of Education Races
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Texas, Science and ‘Dog-Cats’ in the News
We suppose having a sense of humor is important when elected officials are turning your state into a national laughingstock. Religion Dispatches offers a shocking photo of the rare “dog-cat” that Texas State Board of Education member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, must have been talking about during the recent debate over teaching about evolution. Mercer [...]
Posted in evolution
12 Comments
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Is Gov. Perry Proud of Unhinged Extremism?
Texas Gov. Rick Perry really seems comfortable around some rather apocalyptic types these days. Case in point: FOX News commentator Glenn Beck. Beck has sounded almost unhinged lately. Earlier this month, he shrieked that America is headed toward fascism. He even claims a symbol on the Mercury Dime — introduced into the U.S. currency in [...]
Posted in Rick Perry
14 Comments
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Major SBOE Bill Up for Hearing at Capitol
As you know, lawmakers have filed a slew of bills that would rein in the authority of the Texas State Board of Education. Next week one of the most important bills will get a hearing in the Senate Education Committee. Senate Bill 2275 by Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, would strip the state board of authority [...]
Posted in State Board of Education
38 Comments
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NPR Examines Texas Science Battle
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, will talk about the battle over science curriculum standards for Texas public schools on NPR’s Science program Friday (April 10). The program airs from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern time. Check here for a list of stations carrying the program. Our friends at NCSE [...]
Posted in evolution
12 Comments
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Szechuan Happens
Oh, good gravy. State Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, is making national news for suggesting Asian voters in Texas take new names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” At a Texas House committee hearing on a voter identification bill Wednesday, Brown told a representative of OCA, an organization for Asian Pacific Americans (here’s a link to [...]
Posted in Betty Brown, Texas politics
7 Comments
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Even Right-Wingers Stay Informed with TFN
We are grateful to TFN Insider visitors who say our blog has rapidly become an important news resource on issues ranging from science and science education to defending separation of church and state and religious freedom in Texas. So we were extra pleased to see Texas State Board of Education member David Bradley, R-Beaumont Buna, following along with TFN [...]
Posted in David Bradley
4 Comments
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More Evidence for Natural Selection, Chairman
Don McLeroy, the esteemed evolutionary biologist dentist and creationist who serves as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, spent a lot of time last month trying to persuade his fellow board members that scientific evidence for natural selection is wrong. Perhaps he should read this piece from the New York Times: In a worldwide [...]
Posted in evolution
20 Comments
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Voucher Bills Again at the Texas Capitol
Proposed schemes for private school vouchers — which drain money from neighborhood public schools to pay for tuition at private and religious schools — have sparked heated battles in Texas legislative sessions since the 1990s. Tomorrow the Senate Education Committee will take up two key voucher bills. Senate Bill 1301 by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, would [...]
Posted in vouchers
6 Comments
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Defying Reason
The far-right American Family Association is peddling a new DVD series proclaiming that the world’s living wonders can’t possibly be explained by science. Check out the Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution Series here. The videos feature Jobe Martin, a dentist whose The Evolution of a Creationist lectures are all the rage among the anti-evolution crowd. (Another [...]
Posted in evolution, religious right, science and religion
48 Comments
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Looking Ahead to the Science Textbook Battle
Now that the State Board of Education has adopted new science curriculum standards, publishers can write their textbooks for the Texas adoption in 2011. The state board’s creationists will use the flawed standards they approved as a weapon to force publishers into dumbing down instruction on evolution. To get a sense of some of the [...]
Posted in Don McLeroy, evolution, science
70 Comments
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