SBOE: Unintelligent designers
The State Board of Education does many useful things, but the one that tends to get folks most riled is when they decide on curriculum standards and the factual accuracy of Texas textbooks. Lively affairs all, these debates center on where facts end and opinions – either lefty political correctness or righty free market-Bible-abstinence correctness – begin. Over the next four years, SBOE members will deal with math, language arts, and (hoo-boy!) biology. Whoever gets onto the SBOE will help shape whether “intelligent design” is deemed the kind of fact that belongs in science class.
If you’re a rational voter, you may therefore be somewhat less than pleased at your choice of candidates, which include various tantalizing flavors of Republican with nary a Dem in the bunch. Let’s start with District 5 (South Austin): On the right we have incumbent and lifelong educator Dan Montgomery, your run-of-the-mill voucher-lovin’, tax-reducing, performance pay-supporting conservative. He likes spanking, too. (Okay, make that corporal punishment.) And, on the right we have Ken Mercer, who describes himself as a “real” Republican, although if he finds a way to inch any farther right than Montgomery we fear he may fall clear off the edge of the known world. Mercer has been endorsed by some prominent leaders of the religious right, as has Terri Leo, the Bible-thumpin’ SBOE bombshell you love to hate. Less to the right we have Mark Loewe, who as a physicist may actually know a thing or two about scientific accuracy, but he’s the long shot.
In District 10 (North Austin), the race to replace vacating member Cynthia Thornton includes Cynthia Dunbar, who has the backing of the religious right, and Tony Dale who does not, despite being plenty conservative. If you’re voting in the GOP primary, pick your poison.
– Rachel Proctor May
This article appears in February 10 • 2006.
