Education Matters - Texas

There is a struggle in Texas right now over who will oversee education. The blocking of the reappointment of Chairman Don McElroy of the State Board of Education by liberal senators in the state legislature and the present attempt to strip the SBOE of authority (and thus citizens of input into that properly elected body) are the result of efforts by the media, egged on by organizations who are dedicated to keeping evolution in the science classroom and creationism out. Why do organizations such as the National Center for Science Education and the Texas Freedom Network put so much time, effort, and money into this state and this particular fight? Any person or organization whose purpose is to ensure accuracy and give students a good education—enabling them to think on their own—weakens evolution’s hold on the mind of students and they know it. They also know that Texas is key to educational issues in the rest of the nation.

This fight in Texas is of vital importance to the education of Texas students—and all of America's. How does it affect the rest of the nation’s public school children? Texas and California are the two most influential states for education in the United States. California leads in being the first to push issues like homosexual teaching into public school curriculum (next year introducing this even for kindergarteners without recourse for objecting parents). Texas leads in educational accuracy. Texas’s current textbook adoption process results in more accurate and educationally excellent materials. Many states schedule their textbook adoption for the year following the Lone Star State’s because they realize that many factual errors in new educational material will be caught and corrected during this time.

Current Situation: HB 4294, which would place digitalized textbooks in Texas classrooms and circumvent the public hearings and careful scrutiny of the SBOE textbook adoption process, has been sent to Governor Perry’s desk.

Take Action

Urge Governor Rick Perry to veto the measure of HB 4294. Let’s keep education matters under the proper authority of the elected State Board of Education, and in so doing protect the voice of the people in education of our children—and save millions of tax dollars at the same time. Say no to publishers who would wish to line their pockets and circumvent the careful scrutiny of the SBOE textbook adoption process to the detriment of our children and our state’s future. Let us maintain our role in the nation as leader in textbook excellence.