Armageddon Friday

As astonishing as it may seem, Texans are on the verge of proving that they are not yet ready to join the 21st Century -- or maybe even the 19th. Politics and religion are about to mix and insure that "laughingstock" becomes an almost required synonym for the word "education" in Texas. The religious right -- in a move that any ayatollah in Iran would be proud to claim -- is dangerously close to substituting religious dogma for science.

Right-wing mullahs, oops, er, members on the 15-member State Board of Education are determined to reinstate the religious concept of "intelligent design" into science classes throughout the state. If this happens, textbook publishers will be forced to pander to non-science in order to have their textbooks eligible for use in Texas.

So what? Laughing observers in other states could just say, "Let the children of Texas be wrongly educated. It will just mean that our state will have one less competitor for the science and technology jobs in the future." Wrong. It won't be just the children of Texas who will be affected. Because of the size of the Texas schoolbook market, if Texas adopts these rules, then children across the country will have such nonsense included in their textbooks as well. Don't laugh yet. You too have a dog in this fight.

It will be a close thing. The vote is Friday, and the mullahs have at least seven of the eight votes required to inflict this dogma on students for ten years. The voices of reason are not going down without a fight, however. Knowing that such a degrading of science education in the state would both jeopardize the education of students and discourage companies -- especially those in the biotech fields -- from finding qualified employees in Texas, some worried parents and business people are even expressing their concern in newspaper ads.

Scientists in Texas recognize the impact of turning scientific education over to religious crusaders and, as the president of the Texas Citizens for Science notes, such action would "...put a stain on the scientific quality of the science standards written by the science experts."

Heading into Friday's vote, the Board has seven votes (all Republicans) in favor of undermining science and five votes (all Democrats) to uphold science. It comes down to three people to determine whether Texas joins with reason or succumbs to the dictates of zealots.

Comments

[historymatters]

I really don't understand why the size of Texas's textbook market means that all textbook publishers will just publish whatever the Texas state school board wants. Is textbook publishing really that consolidated? Are there really no entrepreneurial publishers out there who would go after the other 49 textbook markets if they didn't want to follow Texas's standards? My gosh, does this mean that capitalism and free markets really are dead????

[BlackJAC]

It's due to the fact that despite all those "independent" school districts, it's the state government that decides what textbooks are used. Consequently this is one massive order of product that sets the textbook publishers' bottom line, and they play to that market.

[lisakaz2]

Why don't advocates of the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" advocate inclusion of their theory, given it is just as provable as ID?

But this doesn't surprise me, given a conversation I had with an important American historian who was being forced to remove all references to slavery from a history textbook in order for it to be approved for use in TX. The reason? These "educators" didn't want to offend students. So they lie.

[BlackJAC]

According to THE GOSPEL OF THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER (a real book available at Amazon), forcing belief in the FSM down others' throats is forbidden under the Eight I Really Wish You Wouldn'ts.

[BlackJAC]

So just hit back with panspermia and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[stevi]

I continue to be amazed that there is a sizable group who want America to fall behind the world in education due to fear and hatred of science. Is this really what the People want? This is beyond what I ever thought my country would allow. Isn't there something unconstitutional about public schools teaching this type of anti-science, pro-religion curriculum? This is absolutely amazing. This is also VERY SCARY! Remember when dubya brought the Taliban leader to Texas and entertained him and gave him aid? Now I understand that better. When will Texas disallow education to females? SCARY!

[kwinter]

Sorry Bill, but you're a little late with this post.
The vote was LAST Friday.
It was kind of a mixed bag. Not great IMO, but I don't have time to explain.
Please update this post!
Thanks.

[Bill Allen - Huffpost Blogger]

The piece was submitted on March 23, but for some reason it was not posted until March 30. It just goes to show that even on superb sites such as huffingtonpost.com, strange things can happen occasionally.

[PlanetKansas]

This is what happens when only the religious right cares enough to recruit and elect its own onto the local school boards, county commissions and every other minor political office.

We have our liberal apathy to blame.

[sktlah]

And this is "No Child Left Behind"? Can't the federal govt. ensure that other states' children are not subjected to erroneous information in their textbooks? I have no problem with federal government ensuring that only "the facts, ma'am" are included in textbooks, and it would be a great time to step in and say NO, Texas lawmakers, you can't do that .

[PlaceboStudman]

What are the political affiliations of the remaining 3 is the question. Texas has not been known for its reputation as a moderate state, so it's fairly certian this will break down political ideological lines