When last we heard from the Texas Board of Education they were overhauling the Social Studies curriculum, a painful-to-watch process that included efforts to diminish the role of Thomas Jefferson in America's founding, and to question the constitutional doctrine of church-state separation. Now, they are on to the Science curriculum, specifically the consideration of supplemental instructional materials. Some conservative members of the board, advocates of creationist views in science education, have suggested that the proposed materials need to be modified. Church-state watchers and science education supporters in Texas are watching the discussion of biology materials closely to monitor the Board's handling of evolution.
Steve Schafersman is the President of Texas Citizens for Science, and he lays out the issues in this week's hearings, in his live-blog of the proceedings.
It is very likely that only supplemental instructional materials submitted under the high school Biology standards will be controversial and addressed by testifiers. Tomorrow, during formal adoption of these materials, the State Board members will discuss these topics with quite differing viewpoints. Mainstream publishers will be criticized by Creationists for not writing enough about the bogus "problems" evolution supposedly has with biological complexity and the fossil record. The politically-inserted standards that promote Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC) will be the topics of debate from those presenting public testimony. The mainstream publishers certainly addressed the new standards, but not in the way that Creationists wished. They expected more content that would disparage the ability of evolution to account for complexity in DNA, cells, the origin of life, and indeed in all of biology
Texas Freedom Network is also live-blogging the hearings. Setting the stage for this week, TFN notes that in a recent "unguarded moment," chairwoman Barbara Cargill
drops the double-speak and is honest about her plan for the first meeting over which she will preside as chair — pressure publishers to censor scientific information from their materials and to insert bogus information questioning evolution. And she knows exactly what her task is: to get the extra votes necessary to accomplish this.
If you are a glutton for this kind of punishment, you can watch a live stream of the hearing here.
