How badly has the State Board of Education wrecked the educational reputation of Texas? Pretty badly, if a policy adopted this week by the local school board in New Orleans is any indication. On Tuesday the Orleans Parish Public Schools board passed the following policy: “No history textbook shall be approved which has been adjusted [...]
Remember during the 2011 Texas Legislature when state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, proposed legislation that essentially validates academic fraud, then did himself no favors by defending the bill in an interview with Mother Jones? That was fun. And now, Round 2: Zedler is back, filing the exact same creationism bill ahead of the 2013 legislative [...]
That’s the headline to a piece by New York Times columnist Charles Blow. Blow suggests that confusing comments by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, about his thoughts on the age of Earth are just another example of modern American conservatism trapped in the grip of anti-intellectual zealots. Money quote: This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian. No wonder [...]
When creationists on the State Board of Education consider new science textbooks for Texas public schools next year and make their usual arguments that supporters of sound science are “secular humanists” and “atheists,” perhaps we’ll remind them of what Pat Robertson (yes, THAT Pat Robertson) said this week: “You go back in time, you’ve got [...]
As we prepare for the 2013 session of the Texas Legislature — a session that could be one of the most difficult ever for supporters of public schools — it appears that creationists are redoubling their efforts to promote creationism in our nation’s science classrooms. This month a Montana legislator officially requested the drafting of [...]
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, touted by some as the great Republican hope in the 2016 presidential election, thinks whether students learn sound science is irrelevant to the economy. Asked in an interview for GQ magazine how old he thinks Earth is, Rubio decided not to anger evolution deniers on the religious right: “I’m not a [...]
“The Revisionaries,” the award-winning documentary about the textbook wars at the Texas State Board of Education, is getting another week-long run at Austin’s Violet Crown Cinema. If you didn’t get a chance to catch this must-see film last week, make the time to go between now and November 8. “The Revisionaries” is an unprecedented behind-the-scenes [...]
During the Texas State Board of Education‘s debate over science curriculum standards in 2008, supporters of sound science education succeeded in killing a provision that would have required students to learn creationism-inspired arguments about the “weaknesses” of evolution. But nine Republicans in state board races apparently will insist that new biology textbooks include those bogus [...]
“The Revisionaries” — an award-winning documentary film about the textbook wars at the Texas State Board of Education — is headed to Austin, and TFN is hosting two premiere showings at the Violet Crown Cinema on Friday, Oct. 26. The theater isn’t very big — so act quickly to get buy your tickets for either [...]
U.S. Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, the Republican nominee challenging Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill in Missouri, told Tea Partiers on Thursday that there’s no science behind evolution. Think Progress has Akin’s quote here: “I don’t see it as even a matter of science because I don’t know that you can prove one or the [...]
