Don McLeroy is a wee bit concerned about losing one of his allies on the SBOE.
State Board of Education former Chair (and current member) Don McLeroy wasn’t too concerned about losing Democratic swing-vote Rick Agosto. At least not at first.
“The big impact will be if I depart,” McLeroy said over the phone.
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But an hour later, McLeroy called back with some different news. Agosto’s abstention on the math book, which McLeroy dismissed initially, was actually essential, he said. “We never could have done that without him,” McLeroy said in a voice message.
“He did a lot of thinking on his own,” McLeroy explained in the recording. “He was not a rubber stamp for anybody.” For those unfamiliar with McLeroy, not being a rubber stamp is high praise.
Why the change? Perhaps McLeroy realized the danger the conservatives on the board would face without Agosto.
If that’s not a good reason to be happy about Agosto’s departure and get behind the candidacy of Michael Soto, I don’t know what would be. Even better is the news that State Rep. Brian McCall is endorsing McLeroy’s primary opponent, Thomas Ratliff. And we’ve got some good Democratic candidates lining up to take aim at some of McLeroy’s other buddies. If we can make 2010 a bad year for Don McLeroy, it will be a very good year for Texas and all of its students.
I was at the LBJ School with Tom…he’d make an excellent addition to the SBOE.
I think qualified candidates like Judy and Rebecca, candidates who actually have experience teaching and working with public schools in Texas, are really going to give the republican lobbyists and cronies a run for their money. I have faith yet in Texas voters and would love to see a change.
McLeroy must be changing his opinions once in a while because he doesn’t hold them as strongly as he would like people to think. I don’t suppose there’s any truth to the rumor that Don McLeroy is a closet atheist and evolutionist, although his vocal tirades against evolution science makes you wonder why he protests so much against those who know something about the science. Regardless of that, creationist or evolutionist, he needs to leave the selection of science textbooks to those competent enough to know something about the science they are teaching.