Texas Insider

By Heather Liggitt

The election primary for Texas is March 2.  What do you know about the State Board of Education (SBOE) elections and their impact on 4.7 million students in Texas?  Do you know your elected SBOE member, their record on the issues and whether they side with educrats or parents on controversial issues?   During recent testimony before The State Board of Education liberal experts testified “high school students are unqualified to ask questions”. 

High school students drive, vote, and die for their country but they are deemed unworthy by liberal educators of asking a question.  When did asking questions become wrong? 

The job of a teacher is to engage the mind of their students so they will ask questions, so why are liberals trying to silence our students and squelch the freedom of individuals to analyze, disseminate and think?  

The State Board of Education, your elected representative, is the safe-guard for our heritage, traditions and history for all students whether home-schooled, private or public in our state. 

The SBOE decides what curriculum, standards and language will be taught and tested and their ability to hold educators accountable to parents and tax-payers is under attack by liberals, statists and educrats. 

Educrats must find new ways to by-pass parental and tax-payer involvement and we the public must engage and demand input for every piece of K-12 curriculum taught in schools.

• Statists — Believe in government control over individual freedom.
• Educrat — One concerned more with the bureaucracy of learning than with the learning … i.e. An educator cares about what a child HAS LEARNED. An educrat cares how a child FEELS about the process of learning. 

The University of Minnesota requires education students to understand and accept that they are either “privileged” or “oppressed” and be well-versed in issues like “white privilege,” “institutional racism” and the “myth of meritocracy in the United States”. 

In North Carolina, educrats are proposing 9th graders learn “Global Studies” with an emphasis on “Global Warming” over “World History” and that American History no longer cover topics prior to Reconstruction (omitting the Revolutionary War & Civil War).  

The Public School system of Seattle added “Reform Math” to their classroom even after The State Board on Education, professional math tutors and engineers deemed reform math “mathematically unsound”.  A Seattle judge has ruled on the side of the Washington State Board of Education, time will tell if the school district will appeal or accept the decision.  

In Texas, review panels for social studies curriculum proposed controversial changes for the State Board of Education (SBOE) to consider.  The review panels refused to include American exceptionalism in Texas curriculum and wanted America to be deemed an imperialistic nation. 

Standing firm on the basis of truth and fact the SBOE locked out the statists, and in January a majority of members approved the study of American Exceptionalism in the new social studies curriculum. More information on approved changes can be found here. 

However, Texas students are still in danger of falling prey to the biased agenda of the statist via the “Open Source Textbook Bill”. 

Texas House Bill 2488, “The Open Source Textbook Bill”, will allow on-line material to be bought and used without review by the state board of education or parents. 

What good are having safe guards if we are not going to use them? 

After suffering defeat in several recent curriculum debates in Texas, statists found a way to by-pass parental, tax-payer and SBOE approval. There are many problems with this new law.

1. Not all schools have the required internet access, abilities or computers to use on-line textbooks.
2. On-line textbooks are new and will have errors; these books are un-tested and should be under strict review to ensure students are taught accurate and necessary information.
3. Not all children will be able to access the material from their home.
4. On-line textbooks will only need approval from the commissioner making corruption a high risk.
5. E-textbooks initial reviews show only 25% of students like the e-textbooks. 

Most students dropped out of initial trial classes saying the e-textbooks “are not fully functional for a learning environment.” Mike Furlough asst. dean for scholarly communications Penn State Univ.
 
On-line textbooks are cutting edge, but cutting out the comments, suggestions, review and approval of parents and the 15 elected state board of education members is a blatant disregard for Texas education code. 

Tim Tuggey (primary challenger to Incumbent Ken Mercer) says he is a conservative but as a registered lobbyist he supports the “Open Source Textbook Bill”.  Bypassing parents, taxpayers and the SBOE for personal gain is not in the best interest of Texas, nor is it conservative. 

Mr. Tuggey is endorsed by Texas Parent PAC—while it has a nice name on the surface this PAC believes in higher taxes, bigger government and silencing the pesky parents and tax-payers who want accountability. Talk is cheap in the world of politics but many times those words come at a high price and Tuggey’s price will be paid by the students, parents and tax-payers of Texas.

The SBOE has limited ability to establish new control measures that will help prevent the high jacking of on-line curriculum standards, and it is the job of every concerned Texan to support those members willing to fight for parental and tax-payer input.   Vote for those Incumbents and candidates with a proven record of fighting the statists. 

Ken Mercer Incumbent SBOE District 5 and Brian Russell SBOE candidate for District 10 are two members concerned Central Texas voters should support. 

Ken Mercer stood up to the liberal experts during curriculum debates stating “If our students do not feel the freedom to simply raise their hands and ask a question in science class, then we are no longer living in the United States of America.” 

Mr. Mercer understands that high school students are not only qualified to ask questions but must ask questions to understand, formulate and hone their own critical thinking skills. On January 15th Ken Mercer made a formal demand of the Texas Education Agency to broaden the solicitations for review panel members beyond the union by including every PTA/PTO and Business Chamber of Commerce in the state. 

Mr. Mercer realizes the importance of parental and tax-payer support and input in the success of education. 

Brian Russell is a grassroots leader who helped author a resolution calling for more rigorous science standards by the SBOE.  The resolution was supported by experts and conservatives and passed by a vote of 13-2.  Mr. Russell lead a group of conservatives in demanding Gov. Perry veto SB 1440 and after the bill was vetoed Brian Russell sat down with conservative members of the legislature and CPS to find alternative methods that would respect parental rights. 

These are the types of actions parents and tax-payers need in the fight to Take Back Our Schools. 

By supporting good SBOE members and candidates we can keep this scene from overtaking our Texas schools.

Heather Liggett can be contacted be emailing h.liggett512@yahoo.com