In a recent interview of candidates for the State Board of Education in District 5, Ken Mercer responds to the question: What is your position on the teaching of evolution? "My biggest quote was, 'If our kids do not have the freedom to raise their hands in science class and ask honest questions, then we are no longer living in the United States of America.' You can call it strengths and weaknesses, but we won the right for kids to ask questions in class, and that was the battle. It wasn't religion. It was just a right to ask questions."
I don't know about you but I've never been in a classroom whether as a student or as a parent observing where children didn't have the right ask questions. Our teachers encourage questions as a way to participate in class and clarify understanding. Mr. Mercer's answer is an evasion because he never states his position on the scientific validity of evolution. What he and the other conservatives on the SBOE did was encourage our children to not just ask questions but to argue with their teachers about whether or not scientific principles are appropriate to the study of biology.
Texas has some of the lowest performing schools in the nation and Mr. Mercer's actions will keep it that way. That's all the reason I need to send him packing in November by voting for Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau.
There's a big difference between Rebecca Bell-Metereau and her three primary opponents for State Board of Education, District 5: none of the three gentlemen raised any funds in the most recent reporting period covering the first three weeks of January, while Rebecca has raised over $10,000 in the same time frame ($30,000 to date). So in addition to Rebecca being an articulate, well-qualified educator, she's clearly the only Democratic candidate taking the campaign seriously.
Note: the above thermometer is not in sync with the reported numbers due to fund-raising outside of ActBlue. We'd love it if readers would help Rebecca reach $10,000 through ActBlue!
Yet all three of the gentlemen are making the rounds of endorsement meetings asking for support, and no one seems to be asking them this basic question: "If you aren't willing to raise money, how are you going to win in a general election in a Republican-leaning district?"
If one of her opponents wasn't named for a famous frontiersman, we could probably hold some back for the general election. Instead, we just hope we're reaching out to enough people and that enough are paying attention so that this year's version of Gene Kelly won't spoil the dance.
(While the attn is all focused on hot and cold running Hutchisons and wallet scorekeeping-right now neighbors of ours are stepping up to the downticket races all over Texas.
Many thanks to Blue_in_Guadalupe for introducing us to one of them in the particulary critical to our future-the SBOE. I hope we will be learning about many more. - promoted by boadicea)
Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau, candidate for the State Board of Education District 5, spoke at a meeting I attended recently and I found her presentation refreshing. She told us about her years in education as a teacher and her experience developing programs at Texas State University to improve student retention. Dr. Bell-Metereau also told us about the academic challenges faced by Texas students who attend out of state colleges due to their poor preparation in Texas public schools.
Dr. Bell-Metereau explained her work on a community board in San Marcos where she successfully worked with people across the political spectrum to accomplish the board's goals. She is running for a seat on the SBOE because she was asked to run and was encouraged by her daughter who has suffered under the current board's dumbed down curriculum standards which are supported by inaccurate texts chosen to meet a political agenda. She told us she respects the all volunteer writing teams and the hard work they do in an effort to give students the best possible curriculum but is appalled at the disrespectful attitude displayed by the incumbent who casually discards their work in favor of hastily crafted partisan based materials.
Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau promises to responsibly and ethically manage the Permanent School Fund without regard to personal financial rewards. I'm confident that if elected Dr. Bell-Metereau will be able to enhance the quality of our children's educations through respectful exchanges with the other members of the SBOE.
