A dispute that seemed sure to boil over in controversy instead went out with a whimper as the Texas Education Board agreed to a new set of supplementary materials for the Biology curriculum. Many watchers expected more of a fight for material that questioned evolution and included elements of Intelligent Design. That's not how it went .
Although one leading textbook publisher — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — was told to make several changes to get its high school biology e-book approved, eight other biology e-books were adopted unanimously by the board. Three were approved after minor changes were agreed to by their publishers.
A potential source of disagreement was eliminated when state Education Commissioner Robert Scott excluded a creationist-backed biology e-book from his list of recommendations to the board. Scott and an educator review team determined that the material, published by International Databases, did not meet state curriculum standards.
The Texas Freedom Network proclaims "Science Education Triumphs:"
Today we saw Texas kids and sound science finally win a vote on the State Board of Education. Now our public schools can focus on teaching their students fact-based science that will prepare them for college and a 21st-century economy. And our schoolchildren won’t be held hostage to bad decisions made by a politicized board that adopted flawed science curriculum standards two years ago.
