State board undergoes political shift
Posted March 4, 2010 at 9:11 p.m.
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2010/mar/04/state-board-undergoes-political-shift/?partner=RSS
Emily Peters
peterse@reporternews.com / 325-676-6776
Tuesday’s election results suggest a political shift on the State Board of Education as some of the most socially conservative members won’t return, including some who supported teaching concepts like intelligent design in science class.
“This will certainly change the dynamic on the state board,” said Heath Burns, Abilene Independent School District superintendent-elect.
Big Country voters in State Board of Education District 15 could have helped keep that socially conservative bloc alive by electing Ector County’s Randy Rives, but instead they overwhelmingly re-elected Lubbock lawyer Bob Craig, a Republican who has not voted with the SBOE’s most conservative block. Craig — armed with endorsements from state Rep. Susan King and most area school board presidents — garnered 64 percent of Taylor County’s vote.
While many voters may not have understood the SBOE race and its implications when they voted, Craig believes he was re-elected because West Texans want to move away from social debates like those that have characterized recent curriculum approvals.
“I think most people want the state board and Legislature to provide good education for our students but they don’t want it politicized,” said Craig, who considers himself a conservative who doesn’t push an agenda. “I think what we all want is an accurate, fair, well-balanced curriculum and that’s what most people support and that’s what I heard throughout the district.”
The State Board of Education is a 15-member board that oversees Texas curriculum standards and the Permanent School Fund. The board has 10 Republicans, but seven of those — along with an occasional swing voter from the Democratic side — have formed a faction that has worked to infuse the curriculum with socially conservative values like creationism and abstinence-only sex education.
Former SBOE chairman Don McLeroy was ousted by a slim margin. Without him and the swing vote of Democrat Rick Agosto — who didn’t seek re-election — the social conservatives no longer have the same power.
“They didn’t have a clear majority but when they all vote together, they could certainly influence what got done,” said Bill Libby, assistant professor of religion at McMurry University. Libby interviewed both Craig and Rives before the election for his weekly radio show. By electing Rives, District 15 voters could have given that influence a better chance at survival.
However, Libby believes Texas is better off.
“That group wanted to highlight particular historical, ethnic and religious streams of materials while leaving out certain individuals or events that didn’t support that particular stream of thinking,” he said.
For instance, he said in history curriculum they seemed to emphasize “white history” and “talked about the Constitution and God in such a way that everyone ought to be Puritans.”
He said he believes the new board makeup means, “We’ll have a solid core of people on the board who will take a conservative point of view on education but will not be pushing for a particular ethnic or religious point of view.”
Burns said the state board will head in a better direction without McLeroy’s “ultra conservative” influence.
“I’ve had lots of interaction with him over the years as I’ve attended many state board meetings,” Burns said. “I would not categorize Dr. McLeroy as someone who is particularly interested in valuing the input of others.”
Libby said he believes the current board would still support history or literature curriculum that includes the Bible, which Burns supports wholeheartedly.
Teacher Eric Thaxton jumped at the chance to teach Wylie ISD’s first Bible course this fall based on curriculum approved by the state board in recent years. He said the class is not religious, but teaches students history and characters in the Bible so they can recognize cultural references.
He declined to offer an opinion on the SBOE political spectrum and simply said, “I just teach what they want to tell me.”