The title to this post is cribbed from Angry Bear, who reminds me that the forces of darkness are gathering again in Texas for the annual vote on textbook purchases. From Bob Park’s What’s New newsletter.
3. INTELLIGENT DESIGN: URGENT APPEAL TO TEXAS SCIENTISTS.
The Texas Board of Education has scheduled the science textbook vote for November 6. The books they approve will be used by Texas students for several years and will influence the choice in many other states. The Discovery Institute, based in Washington state, pushes I.D., and seeks to dilute arguments for evolution. C.A. Quarles, the Chair of the Texas Section of APS, is gathering signatures on a letter to the Texas Board of Education. For info Texas scientists and teachers should e-mail slakey@aps.org.
As in many states, the state Board of Education here was hijacked by the religious right some years ago, and this is the fruit that their efforts have borne. This is an issue that never goes away, and since Texas is the 900 pound gorilla of textbook purchases, what happens here will affect you next.
I used to work for an educational publisher and you’d be astonished at some of the things that were cut out of the books because they couldn’t afford to produce the books twice, so the whole country got textbooks bowdlerized for Texas.
Pretty horrifying.