I blogged here Open Thread: State School Board Opposes the Teaching of ID!?!
on the apparent opposition to Intelligent Design. Did somebody NOT get the memo? Why this dustup? It suggest, at least, that the staff of the education agency is being muzzled on this topic.
Comer, who held her position for nine years, said she believes evolution politics were behind her ousting.
"None of the other reasons they gave are, in and of themselves, firing offenses," she said.
[snip]
"Ms. Comer's e-mail implies endorsement of the speaker and implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral," the officials said.
Next year, the State Board of Education begins a review of the state science curriculum, which will set standards for classroom instruction and textbook selection.
The TEA documents show agency officials recommended firing Comer for repeated acts of misconduct and insubordination.
The officials said forwarding the e-mail conflicted with Comer's job responsibilities. The e-mail also violated a directive for her not to communicate with anyone outside the agency regarding the upcoming science curriculum review, officials said in the documents.
Let me get this straight, after this: If the tide is turning in Kansas, can the rest of America be far behind? which came after this: Judge rules against 'intelligent design', salaried advisors to the school board should be neutral? Even the school board is on record opposing it.
Majority on education board oppose intelligent design
AUSTIN - A majority of State Board of Education members said the theory of intelligent design should be left out of the science curriculum for public schools.
The board will rewrite the science curriculum next year and some observers expect backers of intelligent design to push for the theory's inclusion.
In interviews with The Dallas Morning News, 10 of the board's 15 members said they wouldn't support requiring the teaching of intelligent design. One board member said she was open to the idea. Four board members didn't respond to the newspaper's phone calls.
[snip]
"Creationism and intelligent design don't belong in our science classes," said Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, who described himself as a creationist. "Anything taught in science has to have consensus in the science community and intelligent design does not."
McLeroy, R-College Station, said he doesn't want to change the existing requirement that evolution be taught in high school biology classes. But he joined several of his colleagues in arguing that biology textbooks should cover the weaknesses of the theory of evolution.
Well, maybe it is simple bureaucratic fear that drove this firing:
[snip]
The documents show that Lizzette Reynolds, the agency's senior adviser on statewide initiatives, started the push to fire Comer over the e-mail. "This is something that the State Board, the Governor's Office and members of the Legislature would be extremely upset to see because it assumes this is a subject that the agency supports," Reynolds said in an e-mail to Comer's supervisors.
Even so, this speak volumes to the culture of timidity and intimidation present in the agency. Aren't they supposed to do critical analysis about education issues? let the National Center for Science Education have the last word....
[snip]
Advocacy groups said the action against Comer was troubling. "This just underscores the politicization of science education in Texas," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education. "In most states, the department of education takes a leadership role in fostering sound science education. Apparently TEA employees are supposed to be kept in the closet and only let out to do the bidding of the board." |
