Outrageous claims in an effort to win Senate confirmation of Don McLeroy as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education reveal once again how vicious and dishonest the far right can be. As we reported Wednesday, the Senate Nominations Committee has forwarded McLeroy’s nomination to the full Senate for a vote (probably next week). Here’s what we’re seeing in right-wing blogs and e-mails:
Archive for May, 2009
Shameful Lies
May 21, 2009Sex Ed Measure Dies in Texas House
May 20, 2009The Texas House failed today to pass a measure that would require information in public school sex education classes be medically accurate. Texas Freedom Network sent out the following press release:
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller decried today’s failure by the Texas House to require that public schools teach only medically accurate information in sex education classes.
An amendment requiring that information in sex ed classes be medically accurate was blocked by a point of order claiming that the measure was not germane to Senate Bill 283. Yet SB 283 sets meeting and reporting requirements for School Health Advisory Councils, which advise local school boards and administrators on health education instruction, including sex education. Moreover, the House had just unanimously passed an amendment to the same bill requiring that districts notify parents about the content of sex education instruction in their schools.
“It’s absurd for lawmakers to hide behind parliamentary tactics so they can avoid requiring that students get medically accurate information in their sex education classes,” Miller said. “No wonder a teenager gets pregnant every 10 minutes in Texas. Grownups in the Texas House are scared to even talk about how to prevent it.”
Texas ranks third in the nation in teen births and first in multiple births to teens. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that a teen in Texas gets pregnant every 10 minutes.
The point of order came after an intense three-day campaign by opponents of the “medically accurate” amendment who instead support abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Abstinence-only supporters falsely claimed that the amendment would “outlaw abstinence-only ed,” “censor information” about contraceptive failure rates, and “promote recreational and gay sex.”
“What could possibly be wrong with giving our kids medically accurate information from the Centers for Disease Control or the American Academy of Pediatrics instead of discredited ideological diatribes about birth control and disease prevention?” Miller said. “That’s what this amendment would have done. But today we found out that at least in Texas, the same old ‘culture war’ lies and distortions are still enough to stop even discussion about common-sense approaches to ending the epidemic of teen pregnancy and STDs. Today ignorance won out over truth, and Texas teens will pay the price.”
In February the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund released a report from two Texas State University health education professors that showed more than 9 in 10 Texas school districts teach virtually nothing about pregnancy and disease prevention except abstinence until marriage. The study also found factual errors in abstinence/sex education materials from more than 40 percent of districts.
Breaking: McLeroy Nomination Moves!
May 20, 2009UPDATE: Click here to see video of the committee vote.
In a surprise meeting on the Senate floor, the Senate Nominations Committee in Austin has just approved the appointment of Don McLeroy as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. It appears that McLeroy’s supporters plan to bring his confirmation to the full Senate early next week. Confirmation will require a two-thirds vote.
Committee Chairman Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, had said he would not bring up McLeroy’s confirmation for a vote in committee unless he thought there were enough votes to get it in the full Senate. We don’t know at this point whether opposition from nearly all Democrats and some Republicans has softened, but the signs are alarming.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s critical that you contact your senator and tell him or her that you oppose McLeroy’s confirmation. You can find the name and contact information for your senator here.
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller has released the following statement:
“If the Texas Senate genuinely cares about quality public education, they will reject as state board chairman a man who apparently agrees that parents who want to teach their kids about evolution are monsters. And we’ll see whether senators really want a chairman who presides over a board that is so focused on ‘culture war’ battles that it has made Texas look like an educational backwater to the rest of the country.”
Gov. Perry appointed McLeroy board chairman in July 2007. Since then, the board has turned debates over language arts and science curriculum standards in “culture war” battlegrounds. Chairman McLeroy has also endorsed a book that says parents who want to teach children about evolution are “monsters” and calls clergy who see no conflict between faith and science “morons.” This spring McLeroy led other creationists on the state board in adopting new science curriculum standards that call the scientific consensus on evolution into question and no longer include references to scientific estimates of the age of the universe.
About That ‘Dog-Cat’ Thing Again…
May 19, 2009
During the recent debate over science curriculum standards in Texas, State Board of Education member Ken Mercer argued that science hadn’t found transitional fossils that would back up the science of evolution. He demanded to know why scientists couldn’t show him a “dog-cat” or a “cat-rat,” for example.
It made no difference that some of the state’s most respected scientists — some of the world’s most respected scientists — were telling the board that there were countless examples of transitional fossils. Moreover, they argued, genetic evidence for evolution was even more solid.
They were met by skepticism and not a little derision by Mr. Mercer and other creationists on the board.
Now European scientists are pointing to yet another transitional fossil — although not quite Mr. Mercer’s ‘dog-cat’ — that creationists will ignore. From CNN:
Scientists hailed Tuesday a 47-million-year-old fossil of an ancient “small cat”-sized primate as a possible common ancestor of monkeys, primates and humans.
Scientists say the fossil, dubbed “Ida,” is a transitional species, living around the time the primate lineage split into two groups: A line that would eventually produce humans, primates and monkeys, and another that would give rise to lemurs and other primates.
An Associated Press story about the same finding quotes researchers who believe another fossil found in China provides far better evidence of a transitional species in the early monkey-ape-human ancestral line.
In any case, the point here is that the evidence for evolution is clear and abundant. Scientists repeatedly have pointed that out. But evidence for willful and determined ignorance on the Texas State Board of Education has also been clear and abundant. Some board members themselves have repeatedly pointed that out by their own words and actions.
Stem Cell Funding Ban Is Dead!
May 19, 2009Texas Monthly’s Burkablog is reporting that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, has given up trying to include a ban on public funding for embryonic stem cell research in the state budget. Patricia Kilday Hart writes that Ogden announced this morning that a House-Senate conference committee “couldn’t come to a consensus” on whether to include the ban. So it’s out.
This is a huge victory for supporters of responsible medical research that gives hope to families struggling with debilitating medical conditions like Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and cancer. Last month we called on supporters of stem cell research to call their House representatives and help keep Ogden’s ban out of the House’s version of the state budget. And you came through! The House refused to include the ban, and House negotiators on the conference committee also stood firm against it.
Ogden’s ban would have been a disaster for responsible and promising medical research. Although the state currently does not fund embryonic stem cell research, Ogden’s ban would have threatened even privately funded research at publicly funded facilities. Moreover, it would have discouraged medical researchers from coming to Texas and encouraged those already here to leave.
This victory helps restore hope for so many families struggling with serious medical conditions that are currently incurable. TFN will continue to support those families by opposing efforts to ban or limit embryonic stem cell research in Texas.
Tell the Truth about Medically Accurate Sex Ed
May 19, 2009It’s very important that supporters of responsible, medically accurate sex education in public schools keep calling their Texas House members. Texas Freedom Network is sending out the following Action Alert:
Far-right pressure groups – like James Dobson’s Focus on the Family affiliate in Texas – have launched a “fear and smear” campaign against proposals to help ensure teens learn medically accurate information on responsible pregnancy and disease prevention. That campaign has already led the Texas House to postpone action until Wednesday on Senate Bill 283. The bill would strengthen the role of School Health Advisory Councils in developing policies on health education in local school districts.
Why would anyone oppose common-sense amendments to that bill requiring schools to teach medically accurate information, inform parents about what those schools are teaching students and ensure effective community input on sex education policies?
The answer is simple: lobbyists for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are basing their opposition on ideology, not facts. Here are just some of the lies lawmakers are hearing: the amendments would “outlaw abstinence-only sex ed,” “censor information” about contraceptive failure rates and “promote recreational and gay sex.” These blatant falsehoods are outrageous!
We Need Your Help!
Don’t let far-right groups pressure lawmakers into backing down on ensuring that Texas teens get the medically accurate information they need to make important life decisions and protect themselves from pregnancy and disease. It’s critical that you TAKE ACTION to counter the far right’s reckless and dishonest campaign.
Contact your Texas House representative and ask him or her to support these amendments to SB 283:
Support the amendment by Rep. Joaquin Castro to require that sex education be medically accurate according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
- Fact: 41% of Texas school districts teach factually incorrect information in sexuality education instruction.
Support the amendment by Rep. Michael Villarreal to prevent materials that wildly exaggerate failure rates to discourage condom and contraceptive use by people who are sexually active.
- Fact: 40% of Texas school districts include medically inaccurate information that discourages young people from making responsible decisions to prevent pregnancy and disease.
Support the amendment by Rep. Mark Strama to require school districts to provide parents with written notice about the content of the district’s human sexuality instruction. Don’t parents have a right to know?
- Fact: Polls have shown that up to 90% of Texans want abstinence-plus information about contraception and disease prevention included in sexuality education, but 96% of Texas schools don’t provide that information.
Support the amendment by Rep. Joaquin Castro to require School Health Advisory Councils (SHACs) to have at least 5 members. Isn’t community input important?
- Fact: 81% of school districts surveyed in 2008 could not produce any SHAC recommendation on sexuality education instruction despite the fact that the law requires SHACs to provide community and parental input in district decisions regarding human sexuality instruction.
You can find the name and contact information for your House representative here. Tell your representative that Texas ranks third in teen births, first in multiple births to teens, and that the teen birth rate is rising. Having a baby is the top reason teen girls drop out of school. And teen pregnancy cost Texas taxpayers $1 billion in 2004. Public schools should emphasize the importance of abstinence AND tell students the truth about how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Please contact the TFN outreach office at tfn@tfn.org to let us know that you have taken action so that we can track our progress.
Stop Lying to Keep Teens Ignorant
May 18, 2009UPDATE: The House has postponed action on SB 283 until Wednesday. Keep up your calls and e-mails to House offices in support of responsible sex education.
Having made a fetish out of failed abstinence-only programs that lie to students, far-right pressure groups are also lying directly to voters. Texans for Life Coalition has sent out an e-mail blast that employs more lies in its reckless campaign to keep teens ignorant. The group includes ridiculous claims that amendments under consideration in the Texas House today would “outlaw abstinence-only sex ed,” “censor information about limitations of condoms and contraception,” “promote birth control as a health benefit,” “refer students to Planned Parenthood,” and “promote recreational and gay sex.” (If all else fails, drag homosexuality into it, right? You can almost feel the hate from these people.)
Such nonsense. We told you yesterday what the amendments would do. They would require that information taught about human sexuality and pregnancy and disease prevention be medically accurate. Abstinence-only programs would no longer be able to exaggerate failure rates of condoms and other forms of contraception to discourage their use. School districts would be required to tell parents what they’re actually teaching about human sexuality. And local School Health Advisory Councils would have to be structured to provide local community and parental input on health education issues in school districts.
Now it’s up to you.
Click here to find the name and contact information for your House member. Then ask your representative to support the amendments to SB 283 by Reps. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio; Michael Villarreal, D-San Antonio; and Mark Strama, D-Austin. Click here to read key information about each amendment.
The rate of teen pregnancy in Texas is among the highest in the nation, yet this state has received more federal abstinence-only funding than any other. In the face of this epidemic of teen pregnancy and soaring rates of sexually transmitted diseases, more than 9 in 10 school districts teach nothing about pregnancy and disease prevention except abstinence-only-until-marriage. And abstinence-only programs are plagued with gross factual errors, lies and stereotypes. This nonsense can’t continue. Ignorance and lies won’t protect our kids.
EARLIER UPDATE: Now the Plano-based Free Market Foundation Focus on the Family-Texas is attacking the amendments, claiming that they would require “so-called ‘medically accurate’ information.” “This determination is left to persons who have an agenda,” they say. Actually, the amendment on medically accurate information lists seven agencies and professional organizations for verifying information: the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Societyof America and the American Psychological Association. They do have an agenda, of course: keeping Americans healthy.
The lies from far-right pressure groups continue to pile up, don’t they? They threw truth out the window long ago.
Take Action: Call Reps on Sex Ed Amendments
May 17, 2009Texas Freedom Network is sending out the following Action Alert. Please forward this link to anyone interested in supporting responsible sex education.
More than decade of stubborn commitment by policy-makers to failed abstinence-only programs in Texas schools have had disastrous consequences:
Texas ranks third in teen births and first in multiple births to teens.
Parenthood is the top reason teen girls drop out of school.
Teen pregnancy cost Texas taxpayers $1 billion in 2004.
A number of promising bills were filed this legislative session to respond to this appalling situation, but as the legislative session draws to a close, it appears they have all been blocked by abstinence-only supporters who are satisfied with the status quo. On Monday, however, several lawmakers will make a final push to respond to the epidemic of teen births in our state and improve sex education in Texas classrooms. But they need our help.
The Texas House is taking up important legislation on Monday that could help ensure Texas teens learn responsible information on pregnancy and disease prevention. The House will consider Senate Bill 283 by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. Sen. Nelson’s bill strengthens the requirement that every school district in Texas have an active School Health Advisory Council that provides community and parental input regarding policies on health education, including sex education.
TFN supports this responsible bill by Sen. Nelson. We are also supporting key amendments that would specifically improve sex education in public schools. You can help pass these amendments by contacting your local legislator immediately and through the vote on Monday.
Click here to find the name and contact information for your House member. Then ask your representative to support these amendments to SB 283 by Reps. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio; Michael Villarreal, D-San Antonio; and Mark Strama, D-Austin:
Support the amendment by Rep. Castro to require that sex education be medically accurate.
- Fact: 41% of Texas school districts teach factually incorrect information in sexuality education instruction.
Support the amendment by Rep. Villarreal to prevent materials from discouraging condom and contraceptive use by teens who are sexually active.
- Fact: 40% of Texas school districts include medically inaccurate information that discourages young people from making responsible decisions to prevent pregnancy and disease.
Support the amendment by Rep. Strama to require school districts to provide parents with written notice about the content of the district’s human sexuality instruction.
- Fact: Polls have shown that up to 90% of Texans want abstinence-plus information about contraception and disease prevention included in sexuality education, but 96% of Texas schools don’t provide that information.
Support the amendment by Rep. Castro to require School Health Advisory Councils (SHACs) to have at least 5 members.
- Fact: 81% of school districts surveyed in 2008 could not produce any SHAC recommendation on sexuality education instruction despite the fact that the law requires SHACs to provide community and parental input in district decisions regarding human sexuality instruction.
Please contact the TFN outreach office and let us know what you’re told by your House representative’s office. You can e-mail tfn@tfn.org or call Val or Judie at 512-322-0545 on Monday.
Click here to learn more about what Texas public schools teach about sexuality education today.
More Silliness from Ken Mercer on the SBOE
May 17, 2009Ever wonder how a widely used math textbook could illegally promote “New Age religion”? If not, you clearly don’t share the same wild imagination as creationists in Texas do.
Texas State Board of Education member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, seems to have taken on the role of chief defender of the board’s creationist faction. Now he’s criticizing editorials in newspapers across the state that are calling on the Texas Senate to reject the confirmation of Don McLeroy, R-College Station, as board chairman.
Mr. Mercer portrays himself, Chairman McLeroy and their allies on the board as champions of reform doing battle with “education bureaucrats and lobbyists” — “educrats,” he calls them. Among the “victories” he points to in this “reform” campaign are the board’s rejection of a mathematics textbook two years ago and the adoption of new curriculum standards for language arts and science.
Let’s unpack this a little bit.
First State Ed Board Bill Passes Texas Lege
May 16, 2009On Friday the Texas Senate passed legislation that requires live video and audio Webcasts of State Board of Education meetings. House Bill 772 by state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, is the only bill that focuses on the controversy-plagued state board to have now passed both the House and Senate. Currently, Texans can follow board meetings only by audio on the Web, although legislative proceedings — committee meetings and well as House and Senate floor action — have been available to voters by live video streamed over the Internet. Many supporters of HB 772 hope video Webcasting will help voters learn more about how the state board crafts education policy for Texas public schools. If Gov. Rick Perry signs the bill, the Webcasting requirement will take effect Sept. 1 of this year.
Other SBOE reform legislation is still languishing in committee. HB 2037 and HJR 77 (a constitutional amendment) would shift authority over the Permanent School Fund from the state board to an appointed board of finance professionals. Both measures, also authored by Rep. Howard, have passed the House but are now sitting in the Senate Education Committee. Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, has scheduled neither for a public hearing or vote. Sen. Shapiro also hasn’t set Senate Bill 2275 for a committee vote. SB 2275 — with three Republican and two Democratic co-authors in the Senate — would strip the state board of its authority over setting curriculum standards and adopting textbooks.
The Senate Nominations Committee is still sitting on the confirmation of Don McLeroy, R-College Station, as chairman of the state board. Word is that Senate Democrats remain almost solidly opposed to his confirmation and have been joined privately by at least a few Republicans. If the Senate doesn’t confirm McLeroy by the end of the session on June 1, Gov. Perry will be forced to name another chairman. Unfortunately, that chairman would not be subject to confirmation until the Senate is again in session. Barring a special session, the Senate will not be back in Austin until January 2011.
Dragging Churches into Partisan Politics
May 12, 2009The Internal Revenue Service has ruled against a complaint filed by the Texas Freedom Network asking whether a tax-exempt, nonprofit foundation improperly sought to mobilize conservative pastors for partisan electoral purposes beginning in 2005. In January 2008 we asked the IRS to investigate whether the Houston-based Niemoller Foundation improperly engaged in partisan political activity on behalf of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election in 2006. You can read our press release at the time here and supporting documents here.
The focus of the complaint was Niemoller’s funding of six “Pastors’ Policy Briefings”in 2005 (and a seventh to celebrate the governor’s inauguration in January 2007) hosted by an entity called the Texas Restoration Project. (You can read about the Texas Restoration Project in a TFN Education Fund report here, pages 13-16. ) We also asked whether Niemoller had improperly helped distribute political propaganda in support of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a measure Texas voters approved in 2005.
For the Kooky File
May 12, 2009The level of paranoia on the far right is off the scale. Today Cathie Adams, head of Texas Eagle Forum, sent out an e-mail blast attacking legislation that would create a workgroup to develop recommendations for integrating health and behavioral health services in Texas.
[Texas Eagle Forum] stopped a similar bill the last two sessions because it would have required physicians to screen / analyze your mental health each doctor visit. It is now more dangerous than ever with the federal government taking up nationalized / rationed health care. Texans must not surrender our mental and physical health to a socialist State that President Obama is striving toward.
Huh? House Bill 2196 is authored by Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, in the House and sponsored by Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville. These two conservative Republicans are somehow trying to undermine freedom by wanting to study how mental health services might be useful in treating patients who present with physical ailments? (Never mind, of course, Ms. Adams’ attacks on President Obama as a closet socialist. That’s standard fare these days on the far right.)
The official analysis for HB 2196 states:
Research indicates that people with serious mental illness are more likely than those without mental illness to have poor physical health and face premature death due to untreated and poorly managed medical conditions, such as cardiovascular, pulmonary, and infectious diseases.
In addition to the unacceptable human cost associated with untreated medical conditions and premature death, people with mental illness and other chronic conditions are the greatest users of health services and emergency room care. Evidence demonstrates that integrated health care improves access to and service outcomes for persons with or at-risk for mental illness. Establishing a workgroup in Texas focused on improving integrated health care is of primary importance.
Texas Freedom Network has no position on this bill — it’s not one of the issues we monitor. But we wonder how traditional conservatives take folks like Ms. Adams seriously anymore. Really.
Summer Summit Promotes Responsible Sex Ed
May 12, 2009Do you know young folks who want to advocate for responsible sexuality education in Texas? The Texas Freedom Network is now accepting applications for our 2009 Summer Summit Activist Training. The summit will be in Austin June 12-13, and participants must be ages 15-24. The application deadline is May 26.
Participants will learn how to get involved in local school districts to promote sexuality education that emphasizes abstinence while also including medically accurate information on responsible pregnancy and disease prevention. They will also learn strategies for motivating their peers and encouraging them to join the cause.
Why is this so important? Texas has among the nation’s highest rates of teen births and sexually transmitted infections. Yet a recent TFN Education Fund report revealed that Texas classrooms are perpetuating a “conspiracy of silence” that robs young people of the reliable information they need to make responsible life decisions when it comes to sexuality and health. Even worse, the information students do receive is often grossly distorted or simply wrong.
The Summer Summit will be held at the University of Texas campus in Austin and is free for participants. Participants will stay at a private dormitory on the edge of campus, and adult chaperones will be present throughout the event.
Click here to apply for a spot at the summit. If you have any questions, contact Onnalita Maniccia at onnalita@tfn.org or (512) 322-0545.
Perry Takes RR Courtship to DC
May 12, 2009Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be one of the speakers at an annual gathering of the religious right September 18-20 in Washington, D.C. The so-called “Values Voter Summit” is sponsored by far-right groups like the Family Research Council, American Family Association and Focus on the Family. The event brings together politicos and celebrities to spend three days railing against abortion, gay folks and the nation’s alleged slide into socialism. News of Gov. Perry’s appearance hardly comes as a surprise. With his re-election battle looming next year, he continues to court his religious-right base at every opportunity.
Among the event’s invited speakers this year are true intellectual heavyweights like Carrie Prejean (Miss California USA) and actors Stephen Baldwin, Kirk Cameron, and Gary Sinese. (Not all have yet confirmed.) What? No Chuck “Walker, Texas Ranger” Norris?
There will also be plenty of fringe-right politicos, including U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, to help burn sinners at the stake. In case the name is unfamiliar to you, Rep. Bachmann is the Minnesota congresswoman who blames swine flu Democrats, claims President Obama and some members of Congress are “anti-American,” argues that science shows human activity is not contributing to global warming, and wants Americans “armed and dangerous” in opposition to President Obama’s policies.
Oddly, it looks like the the Values Voter folks didn’t invite Texas State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, to recount her belief that a terrorist-loving President Obama is out to destroy the Constitution. We suppose their quota of anti-Obama fanatics was full.
