Category Archives for Neal Frey

Texas Creationists Are Still Bullying Science Textbook Publishers

Evolution deniers don’t like it when science textbooks tell students the truth. And creationists were really unhappy last year when they failed to pressure publishers into undermining the teaching of evolution in new biology textbooks adopted by the State Board of Education (SBOE) for Texas public schools. So now they’re making a last-ditch effort to bully publishers into falsifying the science in those textbooks. We told you […]

Also posted in Barbara Cargill, creationism, evolution, Science adoption (2013), TFNEF | 10 Comments

Far-right Org Wants Textbooks to Portray Southern Whites as Victims after the U.S. Civil War

A right-wing organization long involved in the Texas textbook wars wants new history textbooks to portray the treatment of former Confederate states and white southerners after the U.S. Civil War as similar to the British treatment of its colonies in the years leading up the American Revolution. “Radical Reconstruction (1867-1877) featured numerous serious constitutional problems, many of which reprised […]

Also posted in Educational Research Analysts, TFNEF | 7 Comments

Publisher to Texas Creationist’s Demands for Biology Textbook Changes: Not Gonna Happen

We now have Pearson Education’s response to claims that the publisher’s high school biology textbook for Texas public schools contains factual “errors” in its discussion of the genetic similarities between humans and chimpanzees. In a detailed response, the company essentially says (politely) that the anti-evolution activist who has made the claims simply doesn’t know what […]

Also posted in creationism, Educational Research Analysts, evolution, intelligent design, Science adoption (2013) | 37 Comments

Texas Creationists Are Still Trying to Censor the State’s New Biology Textbooks

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) adopted new biology textbooks for public high schools last fall, but anti-evolution activists are still trying to censor those textbooks. And they seem to be targeting one in particular: Pearson Education’s high school textbook by authors Ken Miller and Joe Levine. Through a request under the Texas Public Information […]

Also posted in creationism, Educational Research Analysts, evolution, Science adoption (2013), TFNEF | 5 Comments

SBOE Campaign Finance Reports

All Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) seats are up for election this year, but so far there’s not a lot of money flowing into those campaigns. Nearly all SBOE candidates have now filed their July 1, 2011-December 31, 2011, campaign finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission. Some non-surprises: Geraldine “Tincy” Miller, R-Dallas, is […]

Also posted in 2012 Texas SBOE elections, Anette Carlisle, Barbara Cargill, Charlie Garza, David Scott, Don McLeroy, Donna Bahorich, Gail Lowe, Gail Spurlock, George Clayton, Ken Mercer, Linda Ellis, Marty Rowley, Pam Little, Patty Quintana-Nilsson, Randy Stevenson, Steve Salyer, Steven Schafersman, TFN, Thomas Ratliff, Tincy Miller | Leave a comment

Censorship Group Targets Science Materials

It’s increasingly clear that the Texas State Board of Education this summer will be ground zero — once again — in the religious right’s war on science. The newest indication of the pending battle comes from the website of Educational Research Analysts, one of the nation’s oldest textbook censorship organizations. The website shows that the […]

Also posted in Educational Research Analysts, evolution, Science adoption (2011), science and religion, State Board of Education | 6 Comments

Group: ‘Textbook Approval Is Power’

We told you yesterday how the old warhorse of the right-wing censorship movement in Texas, Educational Research Analysts, works to intimidate publishers and promote a divisive ideological agenda in public school textbooks. As we reported, the group’s July newsletter called for the Texas State Board of Education to reject textbooks that are allegedly anti-Christian and […]

Also posted in censorship, Educational Research Analysts, State Board of Education | Leave a comment

Behind the Textbook ‘Culture Wars’

More than a few people have wondered who really authored the inflammatory anti-Muslim resolution the Texas State Board of Education passed in September. Randy Rives, a failed state board candidate from Odessa, asked the board in July to pass the resolution. Rives has told reporters that he and his wife wrote the resolution and combed […]

Also posted in censorship, Educational Research Analysts, State Board of Education | 4 Comments