Texas board chief wants creationist science books

If there is one single person who can influence the contents of every science textbook in America, it is the chairman of the Texas Board of Education. Because Texas buys so many books, the publishers are always anxious to please the Lone Star State. And because they won't publish different texts for every state, schools all over the U.S. wind up learning what Texas says belongs in the book.

The chairman of the Texas Board of Education believes that God created the Earth less than 10,000 years ago, and he wants the science books in his state to be friendly to his creationist bent.

The opening paragraph of this story by Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Simon gives us a glimpse of what is in store for our students:

The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science
curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that
could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.

Creationists swarm BESE meeting

Religious fundamentalists swarmed a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting today, hoping to ensure that new guidelines for teaching science meet their approval.

The board met to implement guidelines mandated by the legislature, ostensibly to guarantee open debate of scientific issues, but believed by many to be an effort to bring religious beliefs into the classroom.

When the issue was debated in the legislature, it was clear that the objective of the bill's supporters was to offer religious explanations alongside scientific theories of human evolution.

Under pressure from the religious activists, the board deleted proposed language that specifically forbade “creationism or intelligent design or (theories) that advance the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind.”

Courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court - have ruled that teaching religious explanations for natural phenomena in science class violates the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.

Supporters of the bill disingenuously claimed that their plan is not about religion at all, but is intended to make sure that all scientific viewpoints are heard by students.

That prompted LFT President Steve Monaghan to call the guidelines “a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist” because teachers are already encouraged to use alternative materials and present competing theories (as long as they are scientifically valid).

Gannett reporter Mike Hasten covered the meeting for this story. Steve May, editor of The Independent in Lafayette, authored this editorial in opposition to the teaching of religion in science classes.