The Texas Freedom Network would like you to know that Texans support having access to birth control. A new statewide poll from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund shows Texans believe that access to family planning and birth control is important and should not be limited by a woman’s income level, employer or medical provider. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Texas Freedom Network’
Texas Freedom Network’s guide to the SBOE elections
The Texas Freedom Network has put out a useful little voter’s guide to the 2012 State Board of Education elections, which covers a range of topics from creationism and climate change to bullying and SBOE procedures. You might look at the answers that the candidates who responded submitted and think “Hey, cool, everyone is basically [...]
The TFN on the SBOE
Hair Balls attended a session at the TDP convention held by the Texas Freedom Network about electing a less-embarrassing State Board of Education. More than 600 people packed a ballroom at the George R Brown Convention Center on Saturday morning for TFN’s session, “Ignorance Is Not a Texas Value: Electing a Smarter State Board of [...]
Another reason why Texas has a high teen pregnancy rate
We’re lousy at sex education. In the mid-1990s, California embraced sex education that teaches students the importance of waiting until they’re older to have sex, but also the value of using protection if they don’t wait. Compare this with classrooms in Texas, where messages around contraception — if they’re delivered at all — have sometimes [...]
Harris County rejecting fewer voter registrations
In other lawsuit-related news: Harris County officials have rejected far fewer would-be voters since 2008, but Democrats are demanding more proof that voter rolls are not being illegally suppressed – particularly among Hispanics – as another U.S. presidential election approaches. The two sides [met] in secret mediation Friday as Democratic officials seek assurances the county [...]
SBOE manages to not screw up science supplements
Baby steps. The quietude of yesterday’s State Board of Education meeting came to a screeching halt during today’s final vote over supplemental science materials. After a unanimous preliminary vote on Thursday, the board appeared split over alleged errors in how evolution was addressed in a high school biology submission from Holt McDougal. A board-appointed reviewer [...]
By the way, our social studies standards still suck
So says a conservative think tank. In a report [released Wednesday], the Thomas B. Fordham Institute gives the Texas social studies curriculum standards a “D” while accusing “the conservative majority” of using the curriculum “to promote its political priorities, molding the telling of the past to justify its current views and aims.” “Biblical influences on [...]
TFN poll on public school curriculum
This is generally good news. Eight of 10 Texans want high schools to teach contraception, including the use of condoms and abstinence, according to a statewide opinion poll that also shows high support for letting teachers and scholars write public school curriculum standards instead of the State Board of Education. More than two-thirds of the [...]
Liveblogging the SBOE social studies hearings
No, not me. I’m not there, and besides, I’m no good at liveblogging. Here’s all the coverage you could need, from people who actually are good at this. First and foremost, the indispensable Texas Freedom Network. Stephen Schafersman, blogging for the Texas Observer. Dave Mann, also with the Observer. Brian Thevenot, writing for the Trib. [...]
More on the SBOE
The Texas Freedom Network does a victory dance over the defeat of wingnut SBOE member Don McLeroy, noting that overall the forces of good did much better than the far right did. “Don McLeroy was right when he said this election was a referendum on what the board has done over the past four years,” [...]
The SBOE takes on social studies
Somewhat surprisingly, nothing too horrible appears to have happened. Yet. Kindergartners would learn about a Texas revolutionary and first-graders would discuss the idea of holding public officials accountable under proposals approved Thursday by the State Board of Education, which began reshaping the guidelines for social studies lessons. The board was wading through dozens of amendments [...]
SBOE prepares to screw up social studies
From a TFN press release: The state’s leading religious liberties group today joined with clergy and scholars in calling on the State Board of Education to approve new curriculum standards that don’t undermine religious freedom in Texas social studies classrooms. “Curriculum writers have drafted proposed standards that rightly acknowledge the influence of faith on the [...]
You can try, but you can’t out-embarrass the SBOE
The Court of Criminal Appeals has had a good run lately as the public institution that has caused the most embarrassment to Texas, thanks in no small part to the ongoing Keller saga and the recent hot judge-on-prosecutor ruling. But never count out the State Board of Education, where it’s not just a clown show, [...]
Textbook ideology
Who cares about Cesar Chavez and Henry Cisneros when our students could be learning about Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh? The State Board of Education has appointed “review committees” made up largely of active and retired school teachers to draft new social studies curriculum standards as well as six “expert reviewers” to help shape the [...]
The new social studies curriculum, so far
There’s no reason to believe that the lunatic fringe of the State Board of Education will do anything but push an unrealistic and ideological change to the state’s social studies curriculum. They’ve made that clear by the kind of “expert” they’ve added to the committee that’s doing the review. But so far, at least, so [...]
Defining “expert” down
The Statesman editorial board lets us know how Don McLeroy defines an “expert” on something. Don McLeroy, who couldn’t muster enough votes in the Republican-dominated Texas Senate to win confirmation as chairman of the State Board of Education, has a curious notion of what qualifies someone as an expert. “If two (board) members think they’re [...]
Another chance to slap the Governor
The Lege has had a few opportunities to express its opinion about Governor Perry and his “leadership” this session. Passing the unemployment insurance bill, inserting the budget amendment that would strip funding from the Texas Enterprise Fund in the event of a veto of the UI bill, the Office of State-Federal Relations bill, that sort [...]
Win some, lose some for science
That’s the basic conclusion to draw after the three-day circus that was the now-concluded SBOE hearings in Austin. TFN Insider sums it up: TFN President Kathy Miller: Texas State Board of Education Adopts Flawed Science Standards The word “weaknesses” no longer appears in the science standards. But the document still has plenty of potential footholds [...]
The “strengths and weaknesses” showdown
Back in January, the State Board of Education somewhat surprisingly voted to remove anti-science “strengths and weaknesses” language from the curriculum. That was only a preliminary vote, however, and today is the day that the hearings begin for the final vote. The Texas Freedom Network gives a preview. After more than a year of work [...]
The sad state of sex education in Texas
We do a really lousy job of it. In sex education classes, 94 percent of Texas school districts teach that abstaining from sex is the only healthy option for unmarried couples, and, in many cases, students are given misleading and inaccurate information about the risks associated with sex, according to a 72-page report released Tuesday. [...]
Update on yesterday’s evolution happenings
In the comments to yesterday’s post about the vote taken by the State Board of Education that stripped out “strengths and weaknesses” language about evolution, Martha noted that there was another vote on this to be taken today. I haven’t seen any newspaper coverage of that, but according to TFN insider and Thoughts from Kansas, [...]
You there! Stop evolving this minute!
Someone once said that no one’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. I’d extend that observation to note that no one’s intelligence or education is safe when the SBOE is in session. For those who want the gory details of today’s farce hearings, I’ll point you to the Texas [...]