Texas Ed Spectator

Critics assail Perry’s pick to head state education board

Gov. Rick Perry named Bryan dentist Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education on Tuesday, a choice that created immediate controversy.

The Texas Freedom Network, which is often critical of social conservatives in government and politics, quickly pointed out that Republican McLeroy was among a minority of board members who in 2003 said biology textbooks should include what they considered weaknesses in Darwin’s theory of evolution.

He also voted with a board majority in 2004 for health textbooks that included little information about contraceptives, despite state guidelines saying students should be able to analyze the effectiveness of so-called barrier protection, such as condoms.

Wow. I can’t believe I missed this. While I’ve been busy helping organize a homeschool conference that would be safe for people to say that they believe in evolution, it looks Perry has been busy making the public schools a haven for those who don’t.

What hypocrites, I do mean both Perry and McLeroy. In a 2003 letter McLeroy wrote against the adoption of certain biology textbooks, he stated:

Don McLeroy’s Contemptible Strategy

In most of the books we are considering adopting, our students are not being presented both sides; the minority viewpoint is being withheld. This means that these books do not conform to our standards.

Apparently, McLeroy thinks it’s important that students have both sides of the “story” for evolution in order to make an informed decision but that’s not the case with regard to contraceptives.

What in the world was Perry thinking in appointing head of the board? Was he trying to make up to the conservative block for his disastrous HPV vaccination executive order?

Anyone interested in public education should be worried with McLeroy on the board, much less the chair. He believes that the board should be in charge of content of textbooks and his views of what that content should include are well known. Looks like the Education Research Analysts will be back in business with the Gablers’ channeling through McLeroy and pals on the State Board.

Technorati Tags: Don McLeroy, Texas, State Board of Education, Texas Textbook Selection, Educational Research Analysts

80(R) HB 503 - Introduced version - Bill Text:

teach contraception and condom use in a medically accurate manner that addresses the health benefits of contraception and condom use and the…

Now why is it necessary to insert “medically accurate manner” into this bill? Could it be that some curriculum provides medically inaccurate information to bolster certain segments of society’s version of morality? Surely Mel Gabler’s Educational Research Analysts would pick up any false or misleading “medical statements?” Yeah, right.

Another reason to pay attention to the Texas SBOE elections.

19 TAC Chapter 66, Subchapter B

§66.33. State Review Panels: Appointment.(a) The commissioner of education shall: determine the number of review panels needed to review instructional materials under consideration for adoption, determine the number of persons to serve on each panel, and determine the criteria for selecting panel members. Each appointment to a state review panel shall be made by the commissioner of education with the advice and consent of the State Board of Education (SBOE) member whose district is to be represented. The commissioner of education shall make appointments to state textbook review panels that ensure participation by academic experts in each subject area for which instructional materials are being considered. The term academic expert includes not only university professors but also public school teachers with a strong background in a particular discipline.

(b) The commissioner of education shall solicit recommendations for possible appointees to state review panels from the State Board of Education (SBOE), school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, and educational organizations in the state. Recommendations may be accepted from any Texas resident. Nominations shall not be made by or accepted from any publishers; authors; depositories; agents for publishers, authors, or depositories; or any person who holds any official position with a publisher, author, depository, or agent.

(c) The SBOE shall be notified of appointments made by the commissioner of education to state review panels.

(d) Members of a state review panel may be removed at the discretion of the commissioner of education.

Source: The provisions of this §66.33 adopted to be effective September 1, 1996, 21 TexReg 7236;

This is the link to the nomination form.
Nomination Form to Serve on State Textbook Review Panels

I would imagine that somewhere you could find out who is appointed to which committees by board district but I haven’t come across it on the web so far.

Remember the couple that make national news because of their work reviewing Texas textbooks?

Textbook Activist Mel Gabler, 89 (washingtonpost.com):

At their kitchen table, they founded the nonprofit Educational Research Analysts to examine textbooks eligible for adoption. They soon became well known statewide, often journeying to Austin to testify before the State Board of Education and confront publishers with their objections. After a few years, they were doing lectures and making appearances across the country and were almost as well known as Phyllis Schlafly, an opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment, or James Dobson, founder of the Christian organization Focus on the Family.

Textbook Activist Mel Gabler, 89 (washingtonpost.com):

A few years later, Mr. Gabler complained that textbooks were indoctrinating children with a philosophy of humanism that was alien to mainstream America. He also protested the influence of the women’s liberation movement, which, he said, had “totally distorted male and female roles, making the women masculine and the men effeminate.”

Well, the organization they founded, Educational Research Analysts, is still carrying on it’s mission to catch factual errors in the name of advancing their conservative, Christian ideology in the public schools.

Extending Mel Gabler’s Legacy

Mel left in place the rule that however many 2+2=5-type factual errors we find in textbooks, they are but means to our chief end of critiquing textbooks’ substantive subject-matter content as Christian conservatives, whose thoroughness and knowledgeability our error lists just confirm.

And on what basis do they critique the subject-matter content? The following are some of their sample standard review criteria:

American Literature

Story content should present:

• A universe that rewards virtue and punishes vice, where good and evil are not moral equivalents, and where problems have solutions.

• …

• Diverse views on current controversial issues, when raided (e.g., “global warming,” feminism, naturalistic origins myths like evolution)

• No sensational violence, offensive language or illustrations, occultism, or deviant lifestyles (e.g., homosexuality)

• No pattern of pejoratives stigmatizing one group and superlatives idealizing another

• No politically-correct steroetypes of oppressors and/or victims by race, class, or gender.

So no grappling with intractable problems for high schoolers studying literature. No readings from the slave’s perspective or those from women or poor people. Unless they happen to be very content with their station in life.

I can’t figure out why they would want diverse views of controversial issues if all problems have a solution. Doesn’t that mean there isn’t more than one side to a story after all?

My point is that this group is still here, still active. It’s just not in the public spotlight as it once has been.

Q & A

 

 

You no longer testify at the Texas State Board of Education annual textbook adoption public hearings. Why?

 

Lowering our voice and working under opponents’ radar gets better results.

Reading From the Right:

Under the direction of Frey, who is assisted by his wife, Judy, the textbook shop has steadily evolved from the Gablers’ era. While Mel and Norma issued textbook reviews as near-celebrities, storming public hearings and sitting for interviews with Phil Donahue and “60 Minutes,” Frey, a former college professor, works in near-anonymity, making his points through the faxes and newsletters he sends to subscribers and textbook decisionmakers.

The State Board of Education elections matter. There isn’t anywhere near as much money involved in the campaigns but the stakes are much higher–the education of your children and the future health of our democracy.