Texas SBOE Board Member Farney Wants to Buy Another Job

What with the recent announcement that HD 20 State Rep Charles Schwertner will look to move up to the State Senate next year, in his desire to replace State Senator Steve Ogden of SD 5 – Yes, that Steve Ogden, architect of the recent budget bill meant to kill public education in Texas – Marsha Farney, newly elected to the District 10 state school board trustee position, has announced that she will make a try for Schwertner’s vacant spot.

And so it goes here in Deep Red Texas.

It will be recalled that Marsha Farney used her own personal funds, or maybe her husband’s, to the tune of 500 large to first defeat her primary opponents, one of whom was endorsed by Cynthia Dunbar, who was leaving the post after having had her way with the state’s science curriculum. She went on to oppose Dr. Judy Jennings in the 2010 general election, winning that handily because Democrats were in a coma that year.

And now, having tired of that post, an unpaid position that she paid half a million dollars to occupy, Marsha Farney is moving on to greener pastures. And I suppose she will self-fund for that race as well, at least that’s what they wrote in this short piece at the Austin American-Statesman:

“‘Certainly,’ Farney said when asked if she would spend her own money again to run for the House. ‘I’m 100 percent committed to doing this.’”

I’ll bet. Marsha Farney has obviously identified a winning strategy: buy your way into office. It worked before. But wait, this office actually pays a salary. $6500 a year. And then there’s that lucrative per diem when the House is in session. What a deal.

And what does Marsha Farney bring to the House as a skill set?

What indeed.

Big hair?

So now we may have to elect a state school board member to replace her if she should win the seat. A state school board position up for grabs in a special election. Yippee.

On Teaching Creationism in Texas

Take a look at this AP video shot in Portsmouth, New Hampshire of Rick Perry speaking to a boy and at the same time answering his mother’s questions.

You get that? Rick Perry actually told the boy that both Creationism and Evolution were taught in public schools.

Politifact rates this claim as false, but I take exception to that.

Now it is true that the state’s school board just went through that exercise as its young Earth Creationist members struggled to add Creationist notions to the state curriculum. As close as they could come to doing that is the recommendation that students look at all theories “from all sides.”

Assuming that one such side is the Intelligent Design side, this opens the door, at least, to teaching Creationism in Texas public schools.

So that seems to justify what Perry claimed, in a small way at least.

But here is the thing. I know for a fact that, here in Texas, if a high school biology teacher is deeply religious, and believes in the Biblical story in Genesis, that teacher will devote instructional time to the Creationist point of view.

Even if it isn’t in the curriculum.

So getting back to Perry’s claim that both Creationism and Evolution are taught in Texas public schools, I’d have to agree. Perry made a simple affirmative statement, not qualifying as to whether this was sanctioned by state standards.

The trouble is, and Perry is extremely good at doing this, the way he said it makes it sound like Texas’s curriculum standards call for doing just this.

Creationists Are at it Again in Texas

Texas’ State Board of Education has taken up the matter of Evolution vs. Creationism again today in a hearing to decide on supplemental materials for the state’s science curriculum. Barbara Cargill, the board’s religious evangelical ex-biology teacher who ascribes to a young Earth creationist creed will head up the discussion.

About the only positive thing you can say about Cargill is that she is an EX-biology teacher and is no longer infringing on the religious beliefs (or non-religion) of her students with her own interpretation of cosmology.

The Texas Freedom Network is there in their usual place live blogging the meeting. Their position has been clear from the beginning that any reference to the pseudoscience known as Creationism or Intelligent Design should be eschewed by the state, and not be made a part of the state’s curriculum. Robert Scott, the Education Commissioner has come out with a set of recommendations on which materials should be adopted, and the TFN has given that set its blessings. Now it is up to the SBOE to either accept those recommendations or to go out into the ether and try to ram through its own conservative agenda.

This seems less likely than in the past. Apparently  the successor to Cynthia Dunbar, Republican Marsha Farney, has proven to be a thorn in the sides of the evangelical bloc, and has reduced the former bloc of seven uberreligious votes to 6 (in Cargill’s own words, there are only 6 “true Christians” on the board now).

It should be interesting to watch. In the past, the boards foray into wackydom has been famously dealt with in other states with laws being passed to avoid any materials approved by Texas’ SBOE. Whether sanity has actually won the day in the state school board remains to be seen.

With this bunch, always expect the worse.

Early Voting Has Begun in the May Local Elections

Tip O’Neill wisely once said “All politics is local.” Nothing is more local than a school board election. Electing people to the Board of Trustees has a daily impact on tens of thousands of lives.

Now, more than ever.

As the state legislature contemplates sending insufficient funds to the state’s school districts, quite against the constitution I might add, and school boards have to decide how to allocate increasingly scarce resources, now it is more critical than ever that voters go to the polls and vote in school board elections.

Now I don’t live in Lamar CISD but I know two remarkable women who are running for two seats on Lamar’s Board of Trustees. I couldn’t recommend more highly that voters in that school district cast their votes for Julie Thompson and Lynn Franklin. Thompson is running for re-election. She knows the job inside and out, sincerely cares about education, and has children attending schools in the district. Lynn Franklin I remember from the days when the Grand Parkway  was going to be extended to the south as a toll road. Franklin worked actively to put a stop to that one.

In the Fort Bend ISD BOT election, which I just voted in, I voted for Dr. Jonita Reynolds. Her opponent simply did not care enough to put up a campaign at all and no one knows much about her. Dr. Reynolds has a PhD in Education and is a former classroom teacher. We need teachers on the board of education.

I also voted for Kevin Daniels, also an educator, who has taught at several levels in public education. He’s raw and will need training up, but he is also very sincere. He is also the only educator running for that seat, and like I said, we need educators on the BOT.

And finally I voted against Susan Hohnbaum. If I wanted a rubber stamp on the school board, I would have gone and bought them one.

Early voting numbers are low, as always. I believe the first day saw 571 voters show up in Fort Bend ISD polls, with numbers higher in areas where there are city elections as well as school board elections.

So go and vote. And if you want to vote my slate you could do worse.

Senate Redraws State Board of Education District Boundaries

Yes, because of the 2010 Census, all the district boundaries are set to be redrawn by a Republican majority Texas legislature. Today I saw where they decided to change my district from District 10 to District 7.

You can see if you are affected by going here.

So, I lose representation by one Republican, and gain representation by another one. Arguably a more conservative one if the stories I hear about David Bradley are accurate.

In commenting on his attitudes toward the constitution and religion during the board’s recent adoption of social studies standards, Bradley is famously known for saying this:

“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation between church and state. I have $1000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the constitution.”

Now the words separation between church and state do not appear anywhere in the constitution. But neither do the words homosexual, gay or lesbian appear in the constitution. Yet the constitution has been used as a basis for the argument that discrimination on account of sexual orientation is illegal.

You see, the constitution was written to be overly general in some areas, and overly specific in others. Guidance in figuring out what the Framers had in mind in the general areas is usually provided by examination of what the Framers wrote separately, in personal letters and in The Federalist Papers.

So when the Establishment Clause of the 1^st Amendment was written, what was on the mind of the Framers? What was on the mind of the Framers when they added this little beauty to the constitution?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”

Look no further than Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. In it he wrote this:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”

Quod Erat Demonstratum.

So Mr. Bradley, you can cut a check for the Fort Bend County Women’s Center. They could use a break from a man, and not the kind of breaks that they usually receive from men.

Teachers’ Union Endorses Dr. Jonita Reynolds for School Board

It came as no surprise to me that the Fort Bend Employees Federation endorsed the candidacy of Dr. Jonita Reynolds in her contest for Position 5 on the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees. First, because her opponent Patsy, Taylor, was a no-show at their recent candidates forum and did not submit answers to the union’s questionnaire, something that disallows any endorsement whatsoever.

Indeed, from what I am told, Taylor has been conspicuously absent from this race.

But really, that fact notwithstanding, the union simply picked the best candidate sitting on the speaker’s platform last Thursday. Reynolds wowed the audience with her firm and complete knowledge of the matters at hand in school board politics. She has this quality of seeming to look at things with an eye that can truly see the big picture.

No, there was no surprise in that endorsement.

The surprise, I think, is that although there are 3 seats up for election this year, this was the union’s only endorsement. They declined to endorse anyone running in the at-large race though the field was 4-people deep, and with an incumbent to boot. They also declined to endorse anyone running for the Position 1 seat.

Anyway, this was a great choice. Dr. Reynolds, obviously, is a Democrat as her spouse, is the Hon. Ron Reynolds D-Missouri City and I think they agree on most things. But you shouldn’t vote for Dr. Reynolds because both you and she are Democrats, and you shouldn’t not vote for Dr. Reynolds because you are a Republican. You should vote for Dr. Reynolds because we have an opportunity to elect a truly thoughtful and caring person to a school board where being mean and nasty has been a way of life for so many years.

Dr. Jonita Reynolds on the Three Most Important Issues Facing Fort Bend ISD

Dr. Jonita Reynolds, running for Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees, did finally show up last night at the Fort Bend Employees Association candidate forum. Her timing was exquisite. I saw her coming in the door and she saw me. We exchanged smiles and then she rushed up to the dais where Kevin Daniels was winding up his take on the three most important issues facing Fort Bend ISD.

Daniels was the last candidate to comment.

So just as he was finishing, up goes Dr. Reynolds and she sat at her place on the end. Karrie Washenfelder, the moderator for the evening introduced her and then restated the question.

Without batting an eye, and within a minute of entering the room, Dr. Reynolds dove right in.

Here is what she said (mostly, she really talks fast sometimes):

"There are a number of issues that are facing Fort Bend Independent School District. The plenary issue is the need for all of us to see the district as a complex system. In its totality there are a number of key ingredients that make the district successful. Every stakeholder, business owners, our teachers, the students, the parents, the community leaders, each plays a role in the success of achievement of all of our children. And the need, as I have expressed when I have been going around talking to others, the need for us to work together throughout the community is key to the success and is the number one priority. We can’t fix one thing without being able to anticipate the unintended consequences of impasse of the decisions that have been made. So the system’s approach to the district is first and foremost the number one issue is to that is we need to see that system and approach the solution in a systematic way. "

"The second issue is communication. Whether that communication is perceived as a lack of communication, or mis-communication, or no communication. To not have it begets distrust. I talked to a number of stakeholders within this complex system, for whatever reason there is a sense and perception that the communication is not forthright. And it is important that we have ongoing communication. We listen and talk to each other in a consistent manner, with our teachers because they are indeed the number one asset that will help to help transform the lives of our students. And so I believe that we can minimize what appears to be a lack of transparency and honesty if we can enhance the communication system between groups."

"And last and certainly not least, funding debt remains a challenge but it cannot ever be done on the backs of our children. We cannot sacrifice what is most important and that is educating our children in an excellent manner so that they can compete successfully."

FBISD Board of Trustee Candidate Forum

A representative of The Fort Bend Employees Federation asked me to post this announcement on the website. Don’t know why. My six readers already know about it. But if you by any chance didn’t hear about it, go and see the candidates for Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees. See them and judge them for yourself. I know I have to reconsider my judgment in one of the races as I clearly do not know the difference between Clayton Alpaugh and Bruce Albright. I kept getting them confused in the last election and the confusion seems to have resurfaced.

Again I am sorry for any stress or inconvenience that my simple honest mistake may have caused, especially to the 15 who had to view the mis-attributed video. It was a mistake of identity due to faulty memory and nothing else.

Press release follows:

FBISD Board of Trustee Candidate Forum

to be Hosted By Fort Bend Employee Federation

Sugar Land, TX - March 29, 2011 - With the current state budget crisis as a backdrop, the Fort Bend Employee Federation will host a "Cake and Coffee with the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustee Candidates" at 7:00 PM, Thursday, March 31, 2011. 
 
The event will be held at the Sugar Land Marriott Town Center Square Conference Center and is open to the general public.

Audience members will have an opportunity to receive a copy of the candidate questionnaire published by the Fort Bend Employee Federation.  Answering the questions presented in the questionnaire is a prerequisite to participating in the event as well as making the candidate eligible for endorsement by the Federation. Attendees will have an opportunity to submit questions to the candidates as well as enjoy cake and coffee immediately following the event.

Thursday, March 31, 2011 7:00 PM
Sugar Land Marriott Town Center Square Conference Center
16090 City Walk
Sugar Land, TX 77479

Betty Baitland is Back

FortBendNow is reporting that Stafford Municipal School District, a district that borders Fort Bend ISD (and was once a part of it) has hired Fort Bend ISD’s former superintendent, Dr. Betty Baitland, as its interim superintendent.

Dr. Baitland was ousted by a reactionary neoconservative school board in 2006. That was, you might already know, the last year that Fort Bend ISD had a budget that ran in the black. Deficit spending became the norm after Dr. Baitland left and the school board started firing cannon shells into the deck.

Stafford Municipal School District isn’t short on the smarts. It removed itself from Fort Bend ISD when school children living within Stafford city limits kept getting the short shrift even though the city, with its heavy industry presence and lucrative tax base, contributed mightily to the district’s coffers.

And now they have taken advantage of Fort Bend ISD’s short-sightedness again.

Have to say it again. I love irony.

Nine File For Three FBISD Board of Trustee Seats

Awhile ago I mused to myself about who on Earth would ever want to serve on the Fort Bend ISD school board right about now? The state legislature is making noise about short-changing Texas’ school districts to the tune of billions of dollars. No good can come of that. Draconian decisions will have to be made on the order of whether it is better to cut off one’s left hand or right foot.

Or worse. They might have to decide that public education is something worth keeping around for awhile, but to do so they might just have to raise taxes.

In Texas, deciding to raise taxes is, well, akin to being hit by a 10 meter high tsunami: nothing good will come of it.

So, yeah, rock, meet hard place.

But much to my surprise, today, the filing deadline for the May 14^th 2011 BOT election, I come to find that nine brave souls have filed to fill three seats. And only two of them are incumbents.

As reported before, Jonita Reynolds filed for the East Side Position 5 that is being vacated by former “Gang of 4” board member Laurie Caldwell who has called it a day (and in my opinion, called that well). Unelectable is a word that might just describe the soon-to-be former board member. Additionally, we see that Patsy Taylor and Rodrigo Carreon, both of Fresno, have filed for this position. I know Rodrigo. He is a perennial candidate who has actually surpassed Harold Stassen in his bids to occupy a vast plethora of county and municipal positions, both paid and unpaid. Rodrigo actually has his own name engraved in a seat in the FBISD boardroom. OK, I exaggerated on that one. Let’s just say he knows the way to the boardroom.

Patsy Taylor. I don’t know about her.

David Menendez has drawn two opponents in his bid to be retained on the BOT for another two years on his At Large Position 4 seat. A bid that should see sure and certain failure. Menendez hasn’t a prayer. Bruce Albright, who ran in the 2009 election, and lost, has a website up and I am starting to see campaign signs for him up in the neighborhood. He probably has a good chance of knocking Menendez off the board. A third person, Kevin Daniels of Missouri City, an “English Lecturer” has also filed.

Kevin Daniels. I don’t know about him.

But the big surprise is that the West Side Position 1 seat, currently occupied by Susan Hohnbaum, a candidacy that was unopposed for much of the month-long filing period, also drew not one but two challengers: Kyle Brantley and Wade Watassek, both of Sugar Land. Brantley lists is occupation as “Marketing” and I assume by that he doesn’t mean what I just did earlier today when I went out to pick up some milk and eggs. Watassek says he is in “Risk Analysis” although the only Wade Watassek I could locate was married to a teacher in Fort Bend ISD. Same guy, I think.

Anyway, it looks like I will have to attend the Fort Bend Employees Federation Candidates Forum to be held at the JW Marriott in Sugar Land Town Square on March 31^st. My mind is made up on Position 5, and I think it has all but been decided in Position 4. Menendez is history and people seem to be flocking to Albright, who has a website now.

I guess I just need to figure out which of the two candidates in Position 1 is most likely to oust Hohnbaum out of the boardroom.

She just isn’t working out.

UPDATE (3/16/2011): FortBendNow is now saying that Fort Bend ISD improperly reported that Rodrigo Carreon was running for Position 5 against Jonita Reynolds and Patsy Taylor. Now we find that he is, instead, running for the At-Large seat against incumbent Menendez, Bruce Albright and Kevin Daniels. This is big news for Menendez who can now take advantage of the fact that Albright is putting his name out there - and also ran in the most recent BOT election, and Carreon has name recognition in local elections. They will most certainly split the anti-BOT vote.

Good News: Jonita Reynolds Filed For FBISD School Board

At last some good news has come out of the day.

Jonita Reynolds has filed for Position 5 on the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees. This is good news for a couple of reasons: 1) I have no need to do research on who is the best candidate, and 2) she’s the best candidate to file for school board in a long, long time.

Jonita Reynolds is herself an educator. Her full name, actually, is Dr. Jonita Reynolds as she holds a doctorate in education. Imagine that, someone on the FBISD school board who hasn’t made it their primary interest in getting FBISD school construction contracts. Someone on the board of education who actually knows something about education. Someone on the Board of Trustees that we can trust.

Someone on the school board who cares about teaching. And teachers.

You might recall that Dr. Reynolds ran for the same seat in 2008 running against incumbent and now sole surviving member of the infamous “Gang of Four” that wreaked such havoc on the board, Laurie Caldwell. Caldwell has as of this date not filed for re-election, but she has until the 14^th of this month to do so.

You might also recall, because I wrote about it, because I saw the report here, that in her 2008 race, Dr. Reynolds was subjected to a massive smear campaign in the days leading up to the May 10^th election. The claim was that Dr. Reynolds had bought her education degree. Unfortunately for Dr. Reynolds, the damage was done even though the truth emerged that her degree was not only earned at the University of Houston and not a diploma mill, but that two faculty members at U of H that taught classes she attended were none other than the former FBISD Superintendent, Dr. Betty Baitland, and the guy she succeeded.

Republican lies, also known as “damned lies” often do the trick for them.

Oh, and I guess I should also mention that Dr. Jonita Reynolds is married to one of the smartest new state representatives in Texas, the Honorable Ron Reynolds. I don’t know, is it just me or does anyone else think that she might also wield a little influence through her Austin connections?

Some Silver lining in Those Draconian Texas Education Budget Slashings

Today, while hearing about my local school district’s plan to cut staffing by anywhere between 360 and 1098 positions, I was asking myself if things couldn’t possibly get worse for the local education delivery system (as I like to call it) in this area, and it doesn’t seem like it can, where can it possibly get better?

And later on today, looking at this piece in the Austin American-Statesman, I had my answer.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Texas is among 28 states to receive a failing grade on its U.S. history curriculum for public schools, according to an evaluation by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute being released today. The Washington-based think tank, a nonpartisan group that studies national education trends, gave Texas a D, down from a C in 2003, the last time the group assessed history standards.”

Get it? If the delivery system that is set up to emplace a flawed set of curriculum standards into the minds and hearts of schoolchildren will not be up to that task – because of layoffs and budget cuts, then I guess we win.

The study group found that Texas’ recently adopted social studies curriculum was fraught with political biases, and the whole adoption process exhibited “‘overt hostility and contempt for historians and scholars’ in considering curriculum changes.”

So it’s ironic, then, that where the State Legislature taketh away by denying school districts the funds to teach Texas school children adequately, the State Board of Education giveth by providing a flawed curriculum that the children won’t be learning anytime soon.

Don’t get me wrong. Texas school children will still be ignorant, but at least they won’t be ignorant by design.

Filing Period for School Board Begins Today

It’s Valentine’s Day, the day when people show their love and affection to each other. Coincidentally it is also the beginning of the 1-month long filing period for three seats on the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees.

But love and affection, I think, will be far from the minds of any school board filers.

Three seats are up for grabs, One is currently held by Laurie Caldwell, the last of the gang of four that put the BOT on its ear for months on end, and ended in the separation of two District Superintendents. The other two are currently occupied by David Menendez and Susan Hohnbaum who were each voted in during the May 2008 election.

Now why is this worthy of attention? Well, not much, really, right?  It’s just the election that will have the most personal impact on the lives of local residents. More impact than a mid-term election that saw the installment of a super-majority in the Texas State House. More than a presidential election. And really more important than usual in a local school board race.

And why is that?

This year will be a year of angst. It will be such a contentious year that, really, I have to wonder about the sanity of anyone who would want to run for a seat on the Board of Trustees – a seat, need I remind you – where no salary is paid. You get some perks, but you also get to have your name published in the local papers when you take advantage of some of those perks.

This year’s BOT will have to deal with something like a $74 million short fall, that is $74 million fewer dollars than the state must statutorily hand over to the school district.

Because they say they don’t have the money because the money they have in the so-called “Rainy Day Fund” is not “on the table,” won’t raise taxes to get it, and will not lift a hand to allow local school districts do anything to take up the slack. Nothing that anyone is hearing about, anyway.

Very much on the table is the end of quality education in Fort Bend ISD. This is not a sumptuous spread let’s just say.

And let’s just say I am going to be very interested to see what kinds of people are going to step up and run for these three seats. Because as the district superintendent has said in the past, there are plenty of funds on hand to build and expand campuses, there is just no money to run them.

SBOE Resolution to Nullify Federal Education Department

Cynthia Dunbar, who declined to run for re-election to her spot on the state school board, and who fancies herself a constitutional scholar, has decided that the legacy that she would like to leave behind at the SBOE should be nothing less than the nullification of the federal Department of Education.

As found at the Austin American-Statesman:

“Outgoing State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar offered a “parting gift” to her fellow board members in the form of a resolution declaring the U.S. Department of Education an unconstitutional bureaucracy with no authority to impose restrictions upon Texas or its school districts.”

An unconstitutional bureaucracy.

Unconstitutional because it’s not in the constitution.

Now, there is a difference, I think, between being unconstitutional and being, for want of a better term, non-constitutional. Cynthia Dunbar, being an assistant professor of law at the Liberty University School of Law, a law school by and for Christians, should know this, too.

Unconstitutional means that the thing or the act runs counter to what we read in the constitution. Like how full body pat downs at airline terminals is unconstitutional in that it violates a 4^th amendment guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure.

Non-constitutional means that it isn’t found in the constitution.

There are lots and lots of things that we don’t find in the constitution. You know, like banks. The word “bank” is not to be found in the constitution. But we don’t hear about Cynthia Dunbar’s opposition to banks because she can’t find the word, not once, in the constitution.

But probably the most glaring of all omissions, because the constitution does enumerate the branches of the military, is the fact that there is no mention of the Air Force in our United States Constitution. The framers clearly meant our country to have a standing Army as well as a Navy (and by their association, a Marine Corps) when they specified that the President was “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states,” but never once is there mention of an Air Force.

According to Cynthia Dunbar then, because there is no mention of the term “Air Force” in the constitution that makes the Air Force unconstitutional.

Well, it seems that the school board won’t be meeting before the newly elected board members meet this January, so Dunbar will not be able to participate in the vote to adopt her resolution. That honor will go to her successor, Dr. Marsha Farney, and that is just fine with me. A vote for or against this idiotic resolution should be a bellwether for how the newly constituted school board, a board minus the presence of Don McLeroy and Cynthia Dunbar, will function.

Or not.

Texas SBOE: An Anti-Islam Paper Tiger

Does anyone else see this but me? Yesterday the Texas State Board of Education, with its rightwing evangelical majority, in two separate actions, did something that is totally inexplicable to me: passed an anti-Islamic resolution just after revealing that they had nothing with which to back their bigoted hand.

You see, the Texas school board thinks that because Texas is the 2nd largest purchaser of textbooks in the nation, this gives them the right, and the gall, to dictate their bigoted religious agenda to national book publishers.

The Texas Freedom Network has the text of their latest excursion into buffoonery here.

The part I like the best is this:

“RESOLVED by the SBOE, that diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic/anti-Christian distortions in Social Studies texts; that Social Studies TEKS cannot provide relief, because they tell what a course should cover, not all it should avoid; that under Texas Education Code §28.002(h) and (i), the SBOE must enforce "the basic democratic values of our state and national heritage; that chronic partiality to one of the world's great religions, and animus against another, flout democratic values and the letter and spirit of this rule; and that Texas Administrative Code §66.66(c)(4) provides, ‘[N]o instructional material may be adopted that contains content that clearly conflicts with the stated purpose of the Texas Education Code, §28.002(h)’”

Do you see it? The Texas SBOE places itself in the position of protecting America from pro-Islamic forces that seek to denigrate Christian history while at the same time glorifying Islam.

The resolution is non-binding, whatever that means, but their intention is clear: it is a warning to textbook publishers to censor themselves in any attempt to describe the religion of Islam in a positive light or to characterize the actions of Muslims in any way other than to demonize them. And in so doing, they are also to remember to speak kindly of murderous Crusaders as well as the anti-Semitism of the Church.

Do that they say, or face the consequences of the Texas SBOE, which “will look to reject future prejudicial Social Studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and/or by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others.”

But I am afraid that the snarling tiger that the SBOE pretends to be has no fangs. Or teeth.

Because the SBOE, courtesy of their own governor, and their own shortsightedness, don’t have the wherewithal to buy textbooks, let alone dictate their content.

From the Dallas Morning News:

“The State Board of Education decided Thursday to scale back the purchase of supplemental science materials for Texas students in the face of a projected state revenue deficit that already has delayed plans to buy hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of new textbooks.”

The school board is so strapped for cash that not only are they postponing the purchase of new textbooks that speak to their recently passed Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills recipe for ignorance, but now they are even cutting back on the “supplemental science materials,” and will only plan to purchase these for high school students. These materials, also known as ancillary materials, are typically softbound workbooks, lab manuals and the like. Expendable material in other words.

There is no money for textbooks, yet the SBOE has the gall to dictate to national textbook publishers how they are to handle Christianity and Islam in their textbooks, or suffer the consequences of being rejected by them for purchase in the state of Texas.

Not only then, is the Texas SBOE again in the national limelight for the religious bigotry that has made them famous around the world, it also seems that their threats to these publishers are about as empty as their bank accounts.

UPDATE: A commenter left a link to a video report on the school board's latest foray into religious indoctrination. It's a good one and I have embedded it below.

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State Board of Ed.: Why Republicans Take Cover

The League of Women Voters have invited local (to Austin) candidates for all levels of state office to debate the issues. A debate that will be aired from the studios of KLRU on the UT campus.

Judy Jennings

Both Rebecca Bell-Metereau and Judy Jennings, candidates for State Board of Education seats in District 5 and 10, respectively, have accepted their invitation to debate.

Rebecca Bell-Metereau

As they should. All candidates for public office owe their participation in debate to the voters so they can make informed decisions on the issues and the candidates they have before them in the November election. The League of Women Voters, an organization founded in 1920 to allow newly enfranchised American women to make more educated decisions on their newly won responsibility, has always been, to my mind, a group that has always produced impartial political forums for the candidates.

No one, up to now that is, has ever questioned the integrity of this organization.

But now the integrity of the Austin-area LWV has been questioned, no really the word is indicted, by Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“In Austin, the League of Women Voters should really be called the 'League of Women Democrats,'" Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri said, explaining why he advised Ken Mercer and Marsha Farney — Republican candidates for the State Board of Education in Districts 5 and 10, respectively — to skip the debate, which is scheduled to be taped Sept. 28 at KLRU studios at the University of Texas.” 

“Munisteri said the league's leaders have ties to the Democratic Party, and he provided a list showing that all six of the league's elected officers have voted in Democratic primaries in recent years and other leaders have contributed money to Democrats, including the ones in the debate. (In Texas, voters do not register a party affiliation but indicate it when they vote in a party's primary.)”

Now granted the data that Munisteri had was no doubt true, that is all in records that anyone with access to the databases can access. And frankly, it does not surprise me that the Austin-area leaders have Democratic leanings simply because they are interested in hearing both sides and letting both sides show the true differences between them.

It doesn’t surprise me because this year more than anything else it will be up to Republicans to keep voters in the dark over their positions and simply use the smoke and mirrors that have become their trademark to deflect attention away from themselves. Directing attention instead toward that Black, racist Nazi, communist, Kenyan Muslim sleeping in a bed in the White House that only white men should sleep in.

So it makes sense to me that the forum organizers be Democrats. What doesn’t make sense to me is that in being Democrats these people then by definition possess such a low degree of integrity that they will fashion a forum for debate exclusively in order to ambush the Republican debaters.

Munisteri provided ample evidence that they are Democrats, but not one shred of evidence that the debate organizers are artful, deceiving liars.

My guess, therefore, is that he arrived at this rather unearned accusation because he knows that if Republicans were organizing a debate forum like this, that this is exactly what they would do: lay an ambush for the Democrats.

There is no other explanation.

Either that, or Munisteri is simply conjuring up a reason for Republican SBOE candidates not to debate because to do so allows Texans to make informed decisions on Republican candidates, and that, in the end, is the last thing he wants them to do.

Millions for Charter Schools, But Not One Dime for Textbooks

On Friday Texas’ internationally famous state school board reversed itself and passed another motion that should endear themselves to media pundits who love to hate what Texas’ educational institutions are doing to their own school children.

They voted to invest $100 million from the $22 billion Texas Permanent Fund, a fund that is supported by the sale and lease of public lands, including mineral rights, and net realized gains from the sale of Fund assets, to invest in developing and leasing buildings for charter schools, which are privately managed public schools.

The Texas Permanent Fund is a fund that is completely overseen by the State Board of Education. Texas Charter schools, however, are answerable to no one.

Still, according to this article in the Austin American-Statesmen, that is what the majority on the board decided to do, spend public money for charter schools that are run by private companies.

They decided to do that instead of doing something that is more in line with the founding purpose of the Texas Permanent Fund, that is the funding of public schools, and in one particular case of interest, the funding of the purchase of school text books.

Because this year, facing a budget shortfall, instead of invoking use of Permanent School Funds to be used to buy school textbooks, the school board is instead putting off the entire book buying thing.

Saving themselves $500 million.

$100 million of which will now be diverted toward funding of charter schools, this despite the fact that 71 school charters were pulled in the past due to low performance, a rate that exceeds public school failures.

But this is the state you live in, you know? The SBOE was handed the Permanent Fund purse strings several years ago and no one in the Republican Party, the party in power, and the party that saw that handover take place, objected.

As this article suggests, all of that may come to a screeching halt next year when the State Legislature convenes.

After all, when you give a fortune in state funds to a band of kleptomaniacs you are bound to reap what you sow, and the only way to solve it is to snatch it back from them.

For Texas SBOE District 10: Marsha Who?

Today the Texas Democratic Party sent a message to all of us about Judy Jennings’ sometime opponent in her race for a seat on the Texas State Board of Education.

Something to the effect of: Marsha Who?

That is, since July 3rd, when Marsha Farney (oh yeah, Farney) addressed a crowd of Teabaggers and expressed her relief that she was before them and not a bunch of America-bashing Democrats.

To wit:

“I'd rather be here than with those America-bashing Democrats.”

But since then, and the feces storm that ensued, no one has seen neither hide nor big hair of Dr. Farney. The Houston Chronicle admits that they were rebuffed from getting an interview, nor have they received any explanation of her July 3rd remark despite repeated quests via email or phone.

“She has not responded to e-mails or phone calls spread out over the past few days”

Judy Jennings, her opponent in the election was unabashedly taken aback by the whole thing, and asked for her take on the remark offered this:

“‘I guess she believes that anyone who's a Democrat is an America- basher, which maybe means that we don't love our country as much as others do who aren't Democrats,’ Jennings says. ‘I don't know what else it could mean.’”

To which I say, how about this? How about that Marsha Farney is just as rightwing and just as politicized as the board member that she hopes to replace, Cynthia Dunbar. How about that Marsha Farney, upon seeing the recent poll taken across the political spectrum, revealed that Texans oppose the politicizing of Texas educational policies to the tune of 72% opposed, has taken a dive for cover?

How about the fact that Marsha Farney, who proudly displays the banner “100% Pro Life Answers” on the home page of her campaign website, uses the issue of Abortion Rights as a litmus test to attract social conservatives to her cause?

In her most recent statement, Judy Jennings has been on point and on the nose in characterizing Marsha Farney as just another political hack that wants to have her reactionary neoconservative way with the Texas school curriculum.

“‘For weeks I have called on Farney to explain to Texas families whether she would join those already on the SBOE in ignoring the advice of teachers and experts, by continuing to push hyper-partisan ideology on our school children., For weeks she has remained silent. Now that she's proven the extent to which she will pander to a fringe element, she has quickly returned to her 'undisclosed location' and refuses to answer any questions, in hopes that Texans won't notice,’ Jennings said.”

“‘I have been clear from the start. When I am elected to the State Board of Education, I will not inflict ideology on the schoolchildren of Texas. Instead, I will listen to the advice of experts and teachers, and will remain focused on the task at hand - providing our Texas children with a world-class education,’ Jennings said.”

“‘Shamefully, it's now clear that we cannot expect the same from Marsha Farney.’”

I know times are tough. I have had to contend with some unexpected expenditures this summer, too. But it’s worth a $5 or a $10 donation to the Jennings campaign to get her message out to the sprawling District 10 electorate that extends from Houston to Austin.

It’s time to take back our educational system from the political hacks. It’s time to support Judy Jennings in an uphill but winnable battle to retake District 10.

Texas Freedom Network Survey: Just Educate

So I mentioned here that I attended the Texas Freedom Network’s caucus at the TDP state convention. The event was well-attended.

On each seat was placed a pamphlet entitled “just educate.”

The title, as it turns out, was an instruction to the Texas State Board of Education to stop using that obscure branch of state government to promote the political views and religious beliefs of individual political hacks who sit on the state school board.

The purpose of the state school board, the TFN asserts, is not to “undermine science education, call evolution a lie and doubt the existence of global warming.” Their purpose, the TFN maintains, is that they “just educate.”

You can turn the pamphlet into a post card simply by filling out the information on one side and cut along the dotted line, stamp it, and send it back to the Texas Freedom Network.

Or, you can save yourself the postage and go here to fill out the same information and click the “Submit” button.

According to the TFN presentation, only 19% of Texans agree that the school board is on the right track in their bid to reshape and mold the minds of the next generations of Texans in their own images. The grand majority of Texans finds the whole process appalling and decry the fact that Texas has become a national, and some say worldwide, laughingstock because of the SBOE’s recent actions.

So there really isn’t any excuse, is there. Go now and register your opinion.

California: Messing With Texas

Now today, in my effort to find out what the Texas State Board of Education is doing, and whether the board is going to adopt the Teabagger Version of US history, I ran across an article that reestablished my admiration for all things Californian, the state of my origin.

First, what I found out about the happening in Austin, is that it looks like Thomas Jefferson has been re-recognized as a major contributor to the philosophies of the Founding Fathers, good news, and that the “Atlantic Triangle Trade”, a euphemism for Slave Trade, has been excised.

No word on whether we are going to teach that Hispanics fought against the Mexican Army at the Alamo, or whether Joe McCarthy wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

But the article that caught my eye was a report that the California State Senate is considering SB 1415, an act to emend the state’s Education Code. It’s so deliciously perfect all by itself that I will just post below a paragraph from an analysis of the bill as found here.

“This bill requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to (1) notify the Legislature and Governors office if it determines any instructional materials submitted for consideration for adoption contain content that meets the revised standards for social studies curriculum in Texas, and (2) to ensure that the next revision of the History-Social Science framework is consistent with existing requirements to ensure instructional materials include, portray accurately, encourage and impress certain content upon pupils”

Isn’t that just great? California, the largest purchaser of textbooks in the United States wants to make sure that ideologues on the Texas state school board don’t get to dictate content in books sold to California. Texas is the nation’s second-largest purchaser of school textbooks.

The bill specifically mentions Texas, and only Texas.

Messing with Texas, California-style.