Texans Unite! (Floridians, too)

This post was amended on 12/07/07 to add the Florida information.

You know, being a Texan has always been fun for me. I'm not one of those in-your-face, way-too-proud Texans, but I like living here, precisely because this state is so larger-than-life and over-the-top (I can't stop hyphenating). It's entertaining. It's fun to watch the cut-throats in the oil and cattle business do their old school Texas thing. It's delightful to watch the new breed of cowboy try to leave a mark in electronics, software, or whatever with whatever new-fangled six shooter he wears. And it's a pleasure to keep tabs on the eccentric turns the Texas political system takes all the time. It's just the way things are here.

But recent events have me worrying about my state.

The thing is, I wasn't going to say anything about Texas Governor Rick (The Hair) Perry's July, 2007 appointment of Don McLeroy, a creationist, to head the Texas State Board of Education, because I truly thought it was going to be a non-issue. I mean, we're not too far removed from the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case, in which the US federal court found that Intelligent Design (the ridiculous notion that the universe is so complex that it could only have come to its current form at the guiding hand of a great designer) was in fact a trumped up version of Creationism, and therefore had no place being taught along with Evolution in a science classroom. So I thought adding McLeroy to the state board in Texas was at worst just another stupid decision by Gov. Perry. I was sure it wasn't going to lead to another Kitzmiller scenario.

Well, citizens of Texas, it looks as though the science education of our children is now in danger of being co-opted by a set of backward-thinking morons whose ideas would fit better in the Dark Ages than in the proud, progressive state that Texas is and should be. There is a real possibility that these fundamentalist jackwads, who somehow continue to find themselves in power after each election, will soon try to devalue the concepts of biological evolution — perhaps the single most important scientific principal in the history of this solar system — by including Intelligent Design in the science curriculum. They seem poised to try to do what the court said the Dover, Pennsylvania school board could not.

Shortly after McLeroy was appointed, things took a turn for the idiotic. No surprise, considering the kind of ass backward thinking Perry, McLeroy, and others in this tragic play demonstrate without fail. For example, according to the Austin American Statesman:

In 2001, McLeroy and a majority of the board rejected the only Advanced Placement textbook for high school environmental science because its views on global warming and other events didn’t comport with the beliefs of the board majority. The book wasn’t factual and was anti-American and anti-Christian, the majority claimed. Meanwhile, dozens of colleges and universities were using the textbook, including Baylor University, the nation’s largest Baptist college.

In 2003, McLeroy voted against approving biology textbooks that included a full-scale scientific account of evolutionary theory.

So, a staunchly religious, creationist governor appoints this hardline, fundamentalist dumb ass to head the State Board of Education, and the next thing you know, things begin to crumble toward another Dover scenario. In November, Chris Comer, the Texas Education Agency’s Director of Science Curriculum was forced to resign by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for sending out an email announcing a talk by anti-creationism advocate Barbara Forrest.

Suspicious, huh?

Even more so when you find out why Comer was let go. Again from the Austin American Statesman:

[Texas Education] Agency officials cited the e-mail in a memo recommending her termination. They said forwarding the e-mail not only violated a directive for her not to communicate in writing or otherwise with anyone outside the agency regarding an upcoming science curriculum review, “it directly conflicts with her responsibilities as the Director of Science.” The memo adds, “Ms. Comer’s e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker’s position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral.”

Wait! Wait! Wait! . . . . Let's see if we've got this straight.

The Texas Education Agency is required to remain neutral when it comes to science versus antiscience?!?!?!?

Shouldn't one of the TEA’s (particularly the Director of Science Curriculum) main purposes be to promote science over antiscience, and to actually teach children the difference between reality and fantasy? My god, if its goals do not include making a stand against detractors of quality education as well as against pseudoscience, antiscience, trash science, codswallop, claptrap, and quackery, what exactly are its goals? On what issues is the TEA allowed to take a side?

Of course Ms. Comer claims that her forced resignation is political in nature, and that she is being railroaded. And given what we know about the case, her claim appears to have quite a bit of merit.

Noted anti-creationist Genie Scott of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE)commented:

This just underscores the politicization of science education in Texas. In most states, the department of education takes a leadership role in fostering sound science education. Apparently TEA employees are supposed to be kept in the closet and only let out to do the bidding of the board.

The good news is, this idiotic act by the TEA is garnering a lot of publicity, and we can only hope that it is causing Perry, McLeroy, and the rest to soil themselves. Unfortunately, idiots of their calliper are usually so self-deluded and arrogant that they believe their every act to be divinely inspired genius. Still, it's good to hear rational voices in the stark, creationist wasteland the young-Earthers are trying to spread across the state.

The group Texas Citizens for Science posted a very public evisceration of the Texas Education Agency:

The real reason [Comer] was forced to resign is because the top TEA administrators and some SBOE members wanted her out of the picture before the state science standards–the science TEKS–were reviewed, revised, and rewritten next year. Plans are underway by some SBOE members and TEA administrators to diminish the requirement to teach about evolutionary biology in the Biology TEKS and to require instead that biology instructors “Teach the Controversy” about the “weaknesses” of evolution, that is, teach the Creationist-inspired and -created bogus controversy about evolution that doesn’t exist within legitimate science. There are no scientific weaknesses with biological evolution as the natural process is understood by scientists. At the level at which it is taught in high school, evolutionary biology has no weaknesses, gaps, or problems. Therefore, it is duplicitous to pretend such “weaknesses” and “controversy” exist.

Now, I want to emphasize here that this is not just an opinion being expressed by the Texas Citizens for Science. The Texas State Board of Education is in fact trying to change the way they review and edit the science standards in the state. We're talking about the basic ideas we teach students in class. Check the link again. I'm not kidding. It's unbelievable.

They want a system where a single person, called a "facilitator" (irony alert), has the final say on how the standards get written. One person!

But wait, you say. There will be a panel of experts in front of which all ideas must pass, right? Yes, there will be. But here's the kicker: If the panel says evolution needs to be a standard, and the facilitator disagrees, then evolution won’t be a standard. Period.

And what are the odds the facilitator will be someone who can be trusted on such important matters? (Cue Gov. Perry and McLeroy at a fundamentalist revival just apickin' and agrinnin'.) In light of the circumstances surrounding Comer's forced resignation, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, not good.

Folks, this violates the very nature of education on nearly every conceivable level. Without any expert input whatsoever, a single person (chosen by a Board of Education with decidedly creationist leanings) gets to decide not only what is science and what isn’t, but also decides this for all the public school students in the state.

Are you kidding me? This is Texas. We're not going to stand for this, are we? It's bad enough we have to shoulder some weird responsibility for the colossal failures of the Bush administration simply because Dubya is from Texas, but do we have to be embarrassed by this latest bit of crap as well?

No, we don't.

Texans, we must fight this. We must combat what seems to be an over-abundance of stupidity thriving in this state. Links to how to contact your government representatives are included below. Contact your state, and indeed your US representatives, and let them know you're pissed off about this. Be sure they know you don't want to live in a state where only a single person decides what to teach our children. Be sure they know you will not tolerate any type of creationism being taught in a science classroom. Be sure they know you don't want to dumb down the citizens of your state anymore. Take this one step, work this one time to ensure that this great state doesn't regress further toward the Dark Ages.

And then maybe we can let Texas politics get back to the larger-than-life circus sideshow it's always been.



To find your state representative:
http://www.house.state.tx.us/resources/faq.htm#who_rep

To find your state senator (bottom of page):
http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/Members.htm

To find your SBoE member:
District Map: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/sboe/districts.html
Member Contacts: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/sboe/members.html

Texas Governor Rick Perry
phone: (800) 252-9600
(Citizen Opinion Hotline)phone: (512) 463-2000
(main switchboard for governor)contact page

The TEA Commissioner is Robert Scotte-mail: commissioner@tea.state.tx.us
phone: (512) 463-9734




Florida

Brandon Haught of Florida Citizens for Science provides this notice:

This is a request for assistance from Florida Citizens for Science. The evolution debate that constantly makes its rounds across the U.S. has landed with a thud in Florida. The state’s science standards, which guide all public schools’ curricula in the state, are being revised. The standards are a serious matter, since whatever is in them must be taught to students in preparation for statewide testing. That testing affects promotion and graduation of students, and determines the fate of funding and reputation of each individual school. The current science standards don’t mention evolution by name or give the theory any significant importance. The draft of the new science standards is a huge step forward, as it rightfully acknowledges evolution as an important concept for all students to be familiar with.

As can be predicted by anyone with a passing knowledge of evolution’s “hot potato” status in Pennsylvania, Kansas, Ohio and Texas, the fact that the word appears prominently in the draft standards has caused a stir. Organizations like Focus on the Family (citizenlink.org/content/A000005985.cfm) and the Florida Baptists (floridabaptistwitness.com/8144) have sounded the call to battle. Members of county school boards have come forward to publicly announce their opposition to evolution and their desire to at least balance evolution with the creationism Trojan horse, intelligent design.

The latest news to strike a blow to sound science, is a Florida Board of Education member announcing her intentions to vote against the new standards because of evolution. That’s an alarm bell, because it’s the state Board of Education that makes the final approval of the new standards. Enough board members voting against evolution can sink the whole thing.

We at Florida Citizens for Science are aware that the anti-science crowd is out in full force trying to exert influence where it counts the most: the state Board of Education. We need to counter that attack, with your support. Please . . . . contact every member of the state BoE and let him or her know that evolution belongs in the state science standards.

Please visit the Florida Citizens for Science website (flascience.org), especially the blog (flascience.org/wp), to learn more.