Suffer The Little Children
by digby
For those following today’s Texas school board shennaigans, in which a bunch of cretins and yahoos are deciding what American history is (and also the English language) here’s the backstory that led up to this:
The Board of Education consists of 15 elected officeholders. The split is 10-5 in favor of Republicans. Of those 10, seven are highly conservative.
“This is a board controlled by extremists who have determined to turn Social Studies classrooms into a tool to promote their ideology,” said Dan Quinn, spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network. “They’ve been successful in turning what should be a curriculum document into a political manifesto.”
(TFN is a nonpartisan group which “advances a mainstream agenda of religious freedom and individual liberties to counter the religious right,” according to its Web site.)
Progressives are finally starting to get serious about challenging these school board takeovers and are running two candidates for the school board this fall and you can help:
In March, the State Board of Education provoked outrage when it removed Thomas Jefferson from a history lesson on Enlightenment thinkers while adopting a new social-studies curriculum on a straight partisan vote. That was just one of many changes pushed by ideologues on the board. This May the board it continuing their assault on history.
Parents and educators alike are appalled that the board often overrides recommendations by historians and scientists in favor of their own half-baked ideas.
Electing Dr. Judy Jennings and Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau to the SBOE in November is the only way to put an end to extremists using the board to promote an ideological agenda.
You can also follow the events at today’s board meeting on twitter at #sboe.