Education Matters - Texas

Hate Crimes Bill Passes

2009-10-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hate crimes bill passes. A deplorable legal precedent was set with the final passage of this attached to a 2010 defense budget bill. Sadly both Texas Republican Senators voted yea to this bill that protects any sexual orientation without excluding sex with children or any other perversion. Children are again put in jeopardy in the name of "rights."

The hate crimes amendment does not (1) define what "sexual orientation" means, (2) is based upon whatever the victim "perceives," and (3) does not exclude bizarre sexual activities (e.g., bestiality, pedophilia, incest, sexual sadism, voyeurism, sexual masochism, transgenderism, exhibitionism, etc.).

As stated in Investors Business Daily (10.9.09): "Making it a federal offense to commit violent acts against people because of their gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation is a blatant violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause."

Join Efforts to Save the Children

2009-10-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

Donna Garner

To: Open Letter to Texas State Board of Education Members and Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott

From: Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Garner

Re: Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, U. S. Dept. of Education

Date: 10.1.09

We are writing to you today to ask you to contact the White House and the U. S. Department of Education to protest the hiring of Kevin Jennings as the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

As our Texas education leaders, you want to keep our public school children safe and healthy. Kevin Jennings’ post at the Department of Education did not require legislative oversight nor the vetting process used in the Senate for other appointees. Undoubtedly, Kevin Jennings would never have made it through such a vetting process because of his extremely troubling background.

While Jennings was a teacher at Concord Academy High School in Massachusetts, a 15-year-old sophomore student came to Jennings and told him that he was having homosexual sex with an older man. Jennings by law should have immediately reported this incident of child abuse to Child Protective Services and/or to the police. Instead, Jennings, who is now in charge of the USDOE's Safe Schools initiative, encouraged the boy to continue the relationship with the sexual predator but to "use a condom."

At first Jennings denied the allegations about his conversation with his 15-year old student until FoxNews uncovered an audiotape in which Jennings admitted that he told the boy to "use a condom" in his activities. The Washington Times (9.28.09
-- http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/28/at-the-presidents-pleasure/ ) and other news agencies have reported the same illegal behavior on the part of Jennings.

Kevin Jennings is a homosexual and is the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), an advocacy group that is trying to push their agenda into our public schools.

Jennings led discussions at a GLSEN seminar in Massachusetts where he guided young teens on how to perform dangerous homosexual perversions. At the seminar, GLSEN handed out a document to the students called the "The Little Black Book" which was a pornographic homosexual how-to-book that included a directory of homosexual bars.

It was Jennings' idea to push GLSEN programs into the public schools by framing the issue as one of "safety." In a New York City church on March 20, 2000, he said:
"Twenty percent of people are hard-core fair-minded [pro-homosexual] people. Twenty percent are hard-core [anti-homosexual] bigots. We need to ignore the hard-core bigots, get more of the hard-core fair-minded people to speak up, and we’ll pull that 60 percent [of people in the middle] over to our side. That's really what I think our strategy has to be. We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit — I’m trying to find a way to say this. I’m trying not to say, '[Profanity], which is what I want to say, because I don’t care what they think! [audience laughter] Drop dead!"

Jennings continued:

"In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card – safety – and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one."

The GLSEN agenda is anything but “safe.” In fact, sexual perversion of any kind is terribly unhealthy and can lead to early death.

The latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that men who have sex with men (MSM) and persons exposed to HIV through high-risk heterosexual contact accounted for 82% of all cases of HIV/AIDS diagnosed in 2006.

The Federal Drug Administration reported on 7.10.09 (http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/BloodBloodProducts/QuestionsaboutBlood/ucm108186.htm ):

Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have an HIV prevalence (the total number of cases of a disease that are present in a population at a specific point in time) 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first time blood donors and 8000 times higher than repeat blood donors (American Red Cross). Even taking into account that 75% of HIV infected men who have sex with men already know they are HIV positive and would be unlikely to donate blood, the HIV prevalence in potential donors with history of male sex with males is 200 times higher than first-time blood donors and 2000 times higher than repeat blood donors

The medical statistics do not lie, and I could give you countless other medical indicators that show the destructive nature of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender activities.

Kevin Jennings’ “Safe Schools” initiative is built upon exactly those unhealthy activities that are disastrous for students.

Please express your displeasure to the White House and to the USDOE about the hiring of Kevin Jennings and do everything you can possibly do to keep Jennings’ “Safe Schools” initiative away from our Texas public schools.

Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Garner
Wgarner1@hot.rr.com

E-mail Texas SBOE Members Today for Tomorrow

2009-09-17T16:36:00.000-07:00

Susan Myers

(summary of information from Donna Garner)

Activist leftist educators are rewriting U.S. history, government, and economics. If they have their way, what will children in Texas learn about their country? Bill Ames, a member of the Social Studies Writing Team, gives us a glimpse into this process by writing an excellent three-part series published in Texas Insider.com.

He shares that excessive multiculturalism and an overly negative view of American history—driven by liberals’ emphasis on social issues that divide, rather than on achievements and patriotic passion that unite—leads to negative descriptions of America’s finest achievements (such as the building of Erie Canal and D-Day). “U.S. expansionism” becomes “U.S. imperialism.” The “free enterprise system” becomes only “capitalism.”

Who needs Daniel Boone, Paul Bunyan, or Robinson Crusoe? Independence Day, Veteran’s Day, or Liberty Bell? Away with John Locke’s two treatises of Government and English common law. Away with children’s biographies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Is it possible for young people to get an accurate and comprehensive history of WWII without Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton? Or flight and space without Orville and Wilbur Wright and Neil Armstrong? Are Roosevelt and Eisenhower just insignificant “dead white guys?” Are the only firsts that count multicultural? It seems today that race, gender, and class trump historical significance.

Friday, September 18, 2009, is the last day of important meetings by the Texas State Board of Education to review the new Social Studies standards, which will dictate a future generation’s understanding of this important area of education in Texas (and in many other states because of Texas’ huge influence on the textbook market).

What can you do?

First, find out who your SBOE representative is—copy and paste this link into your browser. Then enter your zip code and select the District Type (State Board of Education). That will give you the name. Then go to the Texas SBOE Web site for the e-mail address.

Succinct personal e-mails (not form letters) in which you give your name/city/state are the most effective. The SBOE members may not have time to write you back, but they do read them. They track constituent feedback as do all elected officials. Your voice does count.

Seven of the SBOE members have traditionally stood for conservative values. The seven are Gail Lowe, Don McLeroy, Terri Leo, Barbara Cargill, Ken Mercer, Cynthia Dunbar, and David Bradley. These need to know that you are supporting their efforts.

Others on the SBOE need to hear your concerns over the Social Studies TEKS that the Writing Team is drafting (e.g., the exclusion of "Christmas" and "Rosh Hashanah" in the sixth-grade TEKS and the inclusion of the Hindu religious celebration Diwali (Houston Chronicle, 9.11.09).

What can you say?

Tell your SBOE representative…

that the purpose of education is the transmission of academic knowledge and skills to the next generation—not to make radical changes in the attitudes, values, and worldview of students.

to stress the Western heritage model of history, along with its leadership role in science, medicine, economics, agriculture, the arts, technology, religion, and government.

to focus on the special niche that the United States occupies among nations.

that you want factual, unbiased, balanced social studies standards that include events and individuals that are both significant and represent traditional, American Judeo-Christian values.

to produce standards that teach our youth to be proud Americans and that America is a great country that has an overall positive history.

that while many ethnic groups and individuals have contributed to America’s success, their relative contributions and inclusion in the standards must be evaluated according to a uniform, already well-established and objective set of standards.

Keep Planned Parenthood out of Public Schools!

2009-09-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

Jay Sekulow of ACLJ Warns of Future Planned Parenthood Involvement in Public Schools through Proposed Health Care Reform!

"Which aspect of proposed health care reform do you find most disturbing?

The cause for concern over this bill continues to multiply. Now, it appears that a section of the bill that creates federally funded school-based health clinics may be little more than an opportunity for the nation's largest abortion provider to gain access to our school children.

Section 2511 of H.R. 3200 would make Planned Parenthood eligible to operate federal-managed health clinics in every public school in America.

To make matters worse, the legislation leaves wide open the possibility that those clinics would be permitted to provide abortion services - funded by your tax dollars and mine.

DON'T BE FOOLED - this legislation is nothing more than the Freedom of Choice Act disguised as health care reform."

Pray, educate others, keep up pressure on legislators, and support organizations working against this legislation!

jsekulow@aclj.org

The ACLU: Just How Bad Is It?

2009-07-10T15:44:00.001-07:00

Susan Myers

In American Civil Liberties Union’s actions, have you noticed that they stridently demand that students and teachers be “protected” from the Pledge of Allegiance, prayer, the Bible, evidence for creation, and the Ten Commandments at the same time as they force pornography, sodomy, and LGBT upon the public school system?

These horrible perversions that we wince at as adults are being forced upon our children. Here are just a very few examples: Schools pressured into restoring student access to gay Web sites! Government pressed to stopping the funding of abstinence education. School officials threatened into not telling students’ parents about their gay lifestyles! Students taught to frighten school officials into sanctioning gay dates at proms! Same-sex marriage argued over majority opinion in the courts. Abortion equated with birth control for students! Schools mandated to have mixed sex education classes. School districts manipulated into ending teacher drug testing.

Effective manipulators of our founding principles, ACLU lawyers—these “great defenders of liberty”— seem to be purposefully defiling and destroying the future of our country, not only its laws but our educational system along with real children and young people.

Why is that? The truth is summed up in a quote from their own founder, Roger Baldwin: “We are for socialism, disarmament and ultimately for abolishing the state itself…we seek the social ownership of property…and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.” If they can enslave the future citizens of our country while they are young to sin at its most vile and also strip them of the enlightening truth of God’s Word and the Gospel and the power made available through prayer, they have no will to be free and no sight to realize the fact.

What can we do? Educate ourselves and then reveal the truth about this deceitfully named and subversively active group to others. We must protect our children and urge others to protect theirs. Intercede on our country’s behalf, and support organizations that are fighting for our rights and the future of our country.

Liberty Counsel is seeking "to mobilize at least one hundred thousand citizens who will stand against the ACLU and its despicable actions." Identify yourself as being against that insidious agenda. Expose and defeat it. Place your signature on this national petition and the Liberty Counsel promises that you will be "represented in official court briefs, memorandums, and other documents on cases involving attacks by the ACLU on our religious freedom and traditional values."

Six Very Capable SBOE Members from which Governor Perry May Choose the Next Chairman

2009-07-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

Donna Garner

Kathy Miller, head of Texas Freedom Network,led the effort in this last legislative effort to take all authority away from the elected State Board of Education! She and her organization working with other leftwing groups and Rep. Donna Howard, member of the TFN board, filed fifteen anti-SBOE bills.

The only success that Kathy Miller had was in influencing eleven Democrat Senators to vote against the confirmation of Don McLeroy by raising fake allegations. Because of the two-thirds rule in the senate, the eleven Democrats held out over the nineteen Republicans who voted solidly for McLeroy, and he was not confirmed.

Now poor Kathy Miller is quite worried that Governor Perry will appoint an equally conservative SBOE chair. I believe her worst fears will be realized. Governor Perry knows on a personal level how unscrupulous TFN can be since they tried to win litigation against him with the IRS and failed.

The good news is that there are six capable and very committed SBOE members from whom Perry can choose; all would do a wonderful job leading our state toward education reform. Governor Perry could not go wrong by choosing any of the six: Terri Leo, Cynthia Dunbar, David Bradley, Gail Lowe, Barbara Cargill, or Ken Mercer.

News stories show that lawyer Cynthia Dunbar is very likable, capable, and conservative and may be just what the doctor ordered, to the consternation of those who engineered the recent ouster of former State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy.

Special Alert

2009-07-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Donna Garner

The National Education Association (NEA)—the nation’s largest teachers’ union with more than three million members—could be poised to vote on a brazen endorsement of gay marriage at its annual convention in San Diego this weekend, according to sources attending the convention.

NEA members obtained a draft of a proposed business item that declares the organization’s support of legal recognition to same-sex couples, which would amount to an endorsement of gay marriage and civil unions. The draft proposal also goes so far as to openly declare support of efforts to “repeal any federal legislation.” This appears to be a reference to the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prevents states from being forced to recognize same-sex unions performed outside their borders.

The draft version also declares that the NEA would support efforts to oppose constitutional amendments—a less-than-subtle reference to measures like Proposition 8, a law in California recently upheld by the state’s highest court, defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.

NEA caucus members could vote on the issue as early as Friday.

Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said this represents an adult, political agenda that has nothing to do with education or a child’s best interest.

“This is especially egregious when you consider that teachers in California contributed more to support the traditional, man-woman marriage amendment than they did to defeat it,” she said. “If the NEA is so brazen to use its resources to push government-sanctioned same-sex unions—and oppose voter-supported traditional marriage laws—this would unnecessarily alienate a large portion of its members, not to mention contradict the viewpoints of a majority of the public whose tax money funds public schools.”

Sissy Jochmann, (from Moon Twp. PA) leader of the Conservative Educators Caucus of the NEA, said this action item is not what’s best for future generations.

“Over the years, we’ve been involved in the union to be a voice for conservative values we believe in. We know that even though we’re a small group, we represent a much larger group of teachers throughout the country.”

Jeralee Smith, a founder of the Conservative Educators Caucus, said the focus needs to be on education, not politics.

“I believe if the union could get out of the far left agenda and just focus on education that it would be a great boon to society,” she said. “But I believe it tears society down with some of the efforts that it extends.”

TAKE ACTION
Contact the NEA pressroom at 1-619-525-6377 and ask them to reject any proposed business items calling for legal recognition of same-sex unions.

You can also contact the NEA state affiliates through their Web site.

Governor Perry Signs HB 4294

2009-07-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

Donna Garner

It sounds like another one of those typical political compromises to me, and I am terribly disappointed in Gov. Perry.

Besides the issue of the authority of the elected State Board of Education, what about the fact that laptops/digitized textbooks have not been proven to increase students’ academic achievement?

What about the many other objections that I pointed out in my public testimony before the Senate Education Committee? Gov. Perry’s support of HB 4294 does nothing to satisfy those objections.

What about the ongoing cost of providing, updating, and maintaining the technology? Taxpayers are still going to bear the brunt of HB 4294, and teachers will be the ones left to try to clean up the discipline problems, etc, that will occur in their classes. Perry was just trying to satisfy the tech vendors, but our public school taxes should not be spent to employ more tech vendors. The Permanent School Fund will be drained in a few years because of this bad decision by Gov. Perry and the Legislature while the public’s school taxes will increase.

Texas schools cannot possibly employ enough technology specialists to keep all of this technology running for immature students who care nothing about being personally responsible about taking care of their “tech toys.” The breakdowns in computer systems, hardware/software problems, and computer glitches will make it impossible for teachers to hold students responsible for doing their homework and finishing their assignments on time.

Meanwhile, Gov. Perry and the Legislators will go merrily on their way while parents will find their children falling prey to the dangers of the Internet and educators will be left to manage all of the inherent technology problems that occur.

The executive order that Gov. Perry attached to the bill does preserve at least a vestige of authority over the digitized textbooks by the elected SBOE members. The problem with an executive order is that it can be rescinded by the next governor. Also, so long as we have Commissioner Robert Scott in place, we can trust him to work closely with the SBOE; but should a new commissioner be appointed by a new governor or should Commissioner Scott ever resign, HB 4294 could take a completely different turn.

2009-06-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

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.

The Issues of HB 4294 in Texas

2009-06-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Text summarized from a report from Donna Garner in Texas

In Texas’ present educational process, each textbook and the required accompanying digitized version sold to a school have all gone through the public hearings and the careful examination of the present textbook adoption process in which the elected members of the SBOE ultimately decide whether to adopt the instructional materials.

The public has been able to obtain hard copies of the textbooks up for adoption, study them for accuracy and content, and can then present their findings in public hearings. The work by Neal Frey of the Educational Research Analysts carefully details factual errors, which must be corrected by the publisher (fines are levied for each left uncorrected by publishers) before being used in the classroom. Neal Frey told the Senate Education Committee last week that six months of laborious reading of four social studies books recently yielded 744 factual errors. Publishers obviously need this kind of oversight.

The thoroughness of this process results in more excellent textbooks in the Texas classroom.

And also in the classrooms of many other American states! Because of this well-established textbook adoption process, many states set their textbook adoption process a year behind that in Texas. They know that most of the factual errors will be caught during this process.

If HB 4294 is signed into law, it will change this process. There would be two separate adoption processes (1) with tight scrutiny, public input, and SBOE approval and (2) one with very little scrutiny and no public input. Which route will most publishers choose, particularly those with something to hide? The answer is obvious.

HB 4294 inserts a completely separate digitized textbook adoption process over which the elected members of the Texas State Board of Education have no oversight or authority. These would be submitted to the unelected Commissioner of Education (aka, Texas Education Agency) who will choose a group of experts, who would be unable to devote the massive amounts of time necessary to provide adequate attention.

Also, HB 4294 would provide for digitalized textbooks to be the main teaching arena for students, despite the fact that the $20 Million Texas Technology Immersion Pilot (TTIP) conducted in the 2004–2008 school years by the U. S. Department of Education resulted in a study that repeatedly showed that students made no statistically significant academic progress.

It is no assurance that the instructional materials would have to follow the SBOE-adopted standards. Standards have not been the problem in textbooks—errors have been. Senators have been trying to alleviate parents’ displeasure over HB 4294 by promising that a set of thirty books would be in the classroom. Such a number is useless when teachers have 134–150 students! Even the teacher who chooses to use textbooks would be unable to give homework in such a situation.

That class set of SBOE-approved, hardcover textbooks would gather dust if students were all supplied with taxpayer-purchased student laptops loaded with the digitized textbooks that have been adopted under the Commissioner's list and that have circumvented the close scrutiny of the SBOE.

Donna Garnera is an education activist who is the lead writer of the Texas Alternative Document (TAD) and the English Success Standards (English / Language Arts / Reading for Grades K-12) and the Writer/Consultant for MyStudyHall.com, an online tutorial that teaches ELAR to students, ages ten to adults.

To view testimonies before the Senate Education Committee on this matter, please go to http://www.senate.state.tx.us/avarchive/?yr=2009. Click on May 19: Senate Committee on Education (Part 1). Hear Neal Frey of Educational Research Analysts, Donna Garner, and MerryLynn Gerstenschlager toward the middle of this audio record.

Dangers of HB 4294 in Texas

2009-06-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Donna Garner

Our Texas legislature has just passed HB 4291 that would put student laptops with digitized textbooks in our public schools. I have a question in light of the trouble hackers have caused with computers in the Defense Department. If the U. S. Defense Department cannot even protect its servers, how in the world do we in Texas expect to protect our public schools from similar hacker attacks? We certainly cannot spend the type of money they have at their disposal, nor do we have that type of well-trained technology personnel at our command.

Our legislature is living in a dream world if they think that the Texas education system can keep these laptops/digitized textbooks secure. Some of the best hackers have turned out to be computer-savvy teenagers who enjoy the challenge of breaking into their school's security systems. The more laptops, the more students trying to hack them.

It is frightening to think what kind of material could make it onto those laptops; and vulnerable children throughout our state could be intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically harmed for the rest of their lives by the simple click of a mouse. Hardcover textbooks carefully scrutinized by a well-planned public process do not present that kind of imminent danger. Please ask Governor Perry to veto HG 4294.

Tragic Vote By Texas Senate

2009-06-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Donna Garner

The Texas Senate voted not to confirm Don McLeroy as the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. The vote was 19 yeas, 11 nays; but the 2/3 rule meant McLeroy came up 2 votes short.

Senator Jackson and Senator Ogden did a great job of laying out McLeroy's many years of experience on both the Bryan School Board and the State Board of Education, his degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M, and his Medical Doctorate in Dentistry from the University of Texas. Ogden pointed out clearly that McLeroy is a scientist himself and has far more years of science background than most legislators and citizens have.

Those who spoke against McLeroy (all Democrats) bent over backwards to say they were not religiously discriminating against him and then proceeded to do just that.

They kept referring to the controversial articles in the New York Times and Washington Post as if that was a standard by which to judge a conservative SBOE chair who happens to be a Christian. [From the first day that McLeroy was appointed chair by Governor Perry in 2007, the newspapers have publicly vilified McLeroy, saying he was going to get rid of the study of evolution in our Texas classrooms. Wrong. The new Science standards encourage students to study all sides of theories, including evolution. The criticism heaped upon McLeroy was a pack of lies dreamed up by the liberal news media and then propagated by Texas Freedom Network to the Texas Senate. The Democrats "bought the lies." -- Donna Garner]

Senator Ogden said that most of the opposition he heard today revolved around the fact that McLeroy had said "theories are not facts." Then Ogden pointed out that for 250 years Newton's theories were considered to be the gospel until Albert Einstein one day saw a leaf falling and came up with Einstein's theory that contradicted Newton's theories. Then Quantum Mechanics came up with theories that have now contradicted Newton's theories. Ogden said that McLeroy is not necessarily on the fringes of historical and scientific thought just because as a scientist, McLeroy believes that students should study all sides of scientific theories.

Senator Ogden said that the majority of Texans are watching what the Texas Senators do today. He said they want to know if there is going to be a litmus test where Christians should not apply for elected office. He certainly hopes not.

One senator (I did not catch his name) said that from what he had heard, McLeroy was being criticized because he had not allowed an expert to speak at an SBOE meeting. The Senator said, "We did the very same thing last night right here in this Senate chamber." He also said that McLeroy was criticized because of what the newspapers and editorials had said about him. The Senator quipped that the Texas Senate as a whole and many of the Senators as individuals had undergone the same heavy criticism in the newspapers. He said perhaps the Senators were trying to hold McLeroy to a higher standard than they were willing to invoke upon themselves.

The Senate system did not allow McLeroy to speak; and he was not allowed to defend himself against the false allegations made by Senators Shapleigh, Van de Putte, Ellis, Watson, and Gallegos. Senator Patrick said that he had learned in journalism classes to recognize a propaganda technique called "glittering generalities." He said that all of the comments he had heard from the opposition today were glittering generalities and were not credible reasons to vote against McLeroy. He said he had not heard one single argument or fact that indicated McLeroy was an ineffective or dysfunctional leader.

What should we who support the wonderful work of Don McLeroy and the majority of the Texas State Board of Education do at this point? Please contact Governor Perry and ask him not to allow the Senate Democrats, the liberal news media, and Texas Freedom Network to intimidate him.

The new English/Language Arts/Reading standards are excellent and will be coming into the public schools of Texas next fall. The new Science TEKS are considered by many science experts to be world-class standards. The Social Studies standards are in the beginning stages of being rewritten.

Please ask Governor Perry to give the majority of the SBOE members led by McLeroy a vote of confidence by choosing someone from their ranks who espouses McLeroy's same education philosophy. Texas is just now about ready to launch into genuine education reform; Governor Perry must continue to support this effort for the good of our 4.6 million public school children.