rssRight-Wing Activists Lose Seats on Texas Board of Education
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 at 12:35 pm
- 13 Comments
For months, liberals have watched the Texas State Board of Education debate standards for new textbooks, with Gov. Rick Perry-appointed member Don McLeroy leading the charge for standards more in line with conservative ideology. Some examples from a mid-February profile of the board:
McLeroy moved that Margaret Sanger, the birth-control pioneer, be included because she “and her followers promoted eugenics,” that language be inserted about Ronald Reagan’s “leadership in restoring national confidence” following Jimmy Carter’s presidency and that students be instructed to “describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.” The injection of partisan politics into education went so far that at one point another Republican board member burst out in seemingly embarrassed exasperation, “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!” Nevertheless, most of McLeroy’s proposed amendments passed by a show of hands.
Last night, McLeroy narrowly lost the Republican primary for another term on the board to challenger Thomas Ratcliff, while his ally Geraldine Miller lost her seat to another first-time candidate. No Democrats are running for these seats, which means the moderate Republicans who ousted McLeroy and Miller will take their places on the board.
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13 Comments
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
“Republicans” and “embarrassed” don't often occur in the same phrase these days, esp Texas republicans…
Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 2:50 pm
===>>>Texan…'For McLeroy, SEPARATION of CHURCH and STATE is a MYTH perpetrated by secular liberals';
lying repugnants REWRITING history through Texas education/textbooks and SPREADING LIES via 'grassroots' to all AMERICAN SCHOOLS;
“How Christian Were Founding Fathers”;
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14te…
'…Texas’ school-board members…center of the battlefield..money
'…state’s $22 billion education fund among largest educational endowments
'…uses money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually
===>>>'…strongly inclines publishers to TAILOR PRODUCTS to fit STANDARDS DICTATED BY the Lone Star STATE
'…Texas…statewide curriculum guidelines in 1998…other states used them as a model in devising their own…textbooks still backbone of education
'…cultural roots Texas showdown date to late 1980s, in wake of failed presidential effort, Rev. Pat Robertson founded Christian Coalition
'…conservative Christians focus their energies at the grass-roots level '…strategy to put candidates for state and local school-board elections…additional Christian conservatives in 2006
'…now seven on Texas state board who are open about the fact that they vote in concert to advance a Christian agenda
'…vote as a bloc…They work consciously to pull one more vote in with them on an issue so they’ll have majority
===>>>…social-studies review drawn..attention for BATTLES OVER NAMES that should to be INCLUDED IN HISTORY
'…ignoring Kennedy and upgrading Gingrich are significant moves, something more fundamental is on agenda
'…one thing that underlies entire program of nation’s Christian conservative activists is religion
'…their Christian orientation shapes their opinions on gay marriage, abortion and government spending.
===>>>…THEY HOLD that UNITED STATES was FOUNDED by DEVOUT CHRISTIANS and ACCORDING TO BIBLICAL precepts
'…provides what they consider theological, judicial grounding to their positions on social questions
===>>>'…PROCLAIM that U.S. is “Christian nation”…not referring to percentage of population…box in survey or census…but to country’s roots and the INTENT of the FOUNDERS
===>>>…decided TIME was right TO..RESHAPE HISTORY that children in public schools study.
===>>>…Succeeding…toward ultimate goal of reshaping American society.
'…Christian activist on Texas board put it, “…philosophy of classroom in one generation will be philosophy of the government in the next
'…McLeroy professional qualifications have nothing to do with education. “I’m a DENTIST, NOT a HISTORIAN
'…consider myself a Christian fundamentalist…CREATIONIST who believes that earth was created in six days…book of Genesis…less than 10,000 years ago
'…his Christian perspective GOVERNS his WORK ON STATE BOARD and GUIDES him in current EFFORT to ADJUST AMERICAN HISTORY textbooks to HIGHLIGHT role of CHRISTIANITY
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Comment posted March 3, 2010 @ 11:14 pm
Correction: “Republicans” and “embarrassed” don't often occur on the same planet.
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Comment posted March 4, 2010 @ 4:14 am
Correction: “Republicans” and “embarrassed” don't often occur on the same planet.
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Comment posted August 30, 2010 @ 2:30 pm
How does birth control promote eugenics exactly?
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