- 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: August 2009
‘Stealth’ Candidates and the Religious Right
One of the religious right’s most effective strategies in winning political power has been running “stealth” candidates for office. A Texas Freedom Network Education Fund report in 2006 explored this tactic, quoting a 1986 memo from religious-right leader Pat Robertson to supporters seeking control of the Republican Party in Iowa: “Give the impression you are [...]
Posted in elections, religious right
21 Comments
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Death to the Oligarhy! Or Whatever.
We noted in April that Texas Gov. Rick Perry was “proud” to be a guest on Glenn Beck’s FOX News show. Beck, as we noted then, believes liberals are trying “to remove God from America,” is an admirer of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, and seems to buy into the “End Times” theology of the [...]
Posted in Glenn Beck
9 Comments
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The Science Debate: A Win or a Loss?
Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science, reviews the recent battle over the state’s new public school science curriculum standards and asks: “Did we win or did we lose?” The results, he writes, were mixed. We think this paragraph, in particular, hits the nail on the head: The problem was this: The eight pro-science [...]
Posted in evolution, science
7 Comments
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That’s ‘Conservative’?
Texas Eagle Forum, a chapter of the national far-right organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, has released its “Legislative Scorecards” for the recent legislative session in Austin. TEF’s scorecards rate the conservativism of state lawmakers based on their votes on selected issues. Most of the issue areas are standard right-wing stuff, such as allowing concealed handguns on college campuses [...]
Posted in religious right, Texas Eagle Forum
6 Comments
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It’s Likely to Get Worse, Unfortunately
No one should be surprised that right-wingers are pressuring writing teams to craft new Texas public school social studies curriculum standards that are slanted to the political right. We reported in June that State Board of Education members had seeded the writing teams with far-right extremists who rail against immigration and think new President Obama is [...]
Posted in Peter Morrison, social studies
19 Comments
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Another Blow to School Voucher Schemes
A variety of studies in recent years have revealed that private school voucher schemes don’t live up to their promises of giving families better options and improving public schools through competition. Now a new study reveals that private schools most available to the low-income families that vouchers are supposed to help tend not to offer academic benefits [...]
Posted in vouchers
39 Comments
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Help Celebrate TFN’s 14th Anniversary
It’s been a busy year for the Texas Freedom Network: battling far-right extremism on the State Board of Education, promoting responsible sexuality education for Texas teens, defeating private school voucher schemes and efforts to undermine stem cell research in the Legislature, defending religious freedom and separation of church and state. But all we’ve accomplished would [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
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Olbermann vs. the Texas State Board of Ed
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann last night named the Texas State Board of Education the day’s “Worst Person in the World” for requiring that Texas public schools teach about the Bible. Check out a video clip here. (The clip begins with a commercial and two runners-up to the “Worst Person in the World.”) In truth, it’s a [...]
Posted in Bible in schools, State Board of Education
14 Comments
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