Texas State Board of Education needs a “Monkey Trial”

There are many things I like about living in Austin but the ultra-backward nature of some of the Texas politicians often makes me wonder why I continue to live in this state.

I’ve met Governor Perry a few times and I’ll be the first to admit that on a personal level he is very charismatic and seems to be a nice guy. But he is also clearly a smart politician that knows how to get elected.

Many Texans are well-read and educated but still cling to some outdated, backward ideas. Creationism/Intelligent Design is one of those backward ideas. There is no question that science is on the side of evolution but many people refuse to be swayed by the facts.

Gov. Perry is clearly aware of this and plays to it in order to ensure he gets their votes by doing things like picking a creationist to run the State Board of Education and, according to Gail Lowe , this was the “less controversial” choice as he didn’t choose the person who “thought public education was a ‘subtly deceptive tool of perversion.’ ”

One of my favorite quotes (but I can’t remember from where I first got it) is “You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own set of facts.” Unfortunately, the Texas State Board of Education is trying to force their own opinion on the rest of the population and acting like their opinion is fact. The brilliance of the plan is they hope to influence future voters by brain-washing them at a young age.

These actions have led the Fordham Institute to downgrade their rating of the Texas history education to a “D” rating (see Texas’ distortion of history).

The scary part for me is Perry is rumored to be considering a run for president in 2012. The US is already falling behind in math and science education. I hesitate to think what it will be like if Perry actually were successful in his bid…