Grading Texas

Inviting a rebuke from Democratic legislators, State Education Commissioner Robert Scott addressed the State Board of Education this morning and urged members to ignore the “tantrums” of detractors and proceed with a final vote, as planned, on social studies curriculum standards on Friday.

Time is critical, Scott insisted, despite the fact that several Hispanic and black legislators, all Democrats, urged the board yesterday to delay a final vote. The lawmakers said more time is needed to correct curriculum standards that the lawmakers and other board critics say are compromised by the board members’ political and religious beliefs.

Also among many other people and groups seeking a delay is former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige. He told board members yesterday that they needed to take more time to revise the standards to more adequately treat the roles of slavery and civil rights in Texas and American history.

But Scott, an appointee of Gov. Rick Perry, said it was important for the board to stick to their current schedule for purposes of updating endofcourse and college readiness assessments.

“Steel yourself against their criticisms and…the tantrums that will be thrown, and let’s get this process done,” the commissioner said.

Scott already has caught flak from Democrats for using the word “payback” at a hearing of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus last month. He used the term in relation to the effect of changing political winds over curriculum standards but insisted the remark was mischaracterized by critics.

Scott didn’t say who he was specifically talking about today, but I wonder how the legislators or Rod Paige – among others will like his choice of the word, “tantrums.”

Board member Geraldine Miller, who was unseated in the March Republican primary, made it clear she was annoyed by some of the legislators’ comments. She said she thought the board was “getting indirect threats (from the lawmakers), and that really rubbed us wrong.”

Several Hispanic and African American legislators, all Democrats, urged the State Board of Education to delay final adoption of the social studies curriculum standards and in the process did some verbal dueling.

Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, said he had researched state law and “can’t find where it says if we don’t do this by Friday, all hell is going to break loose.”

Several Republican board members, including Terri Leo of Spring, disagreed. “If we delay a vote, that doesn’t punish the board. That punishes the students,” she said.

A couple of witnesses later, Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston, responded to Leo, “If the textbook that we give our children is not fair, is not balanced, then we are hurting the children.” Many people are concerned, Turner said, that the board is trying to put “political messages” in textbooks.

Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon of San Antonio warned the board against “hijacking history,” which prompted a response from board member Barbara Cargill of The Woodlands.

“We’re not all going to agree on how history should be taught. We’re not,” Cargill said.

To which McClendon replied, “Put the facts in the book, and the facts will decide how history is taught because the teachers will teach the facts.”

I don’t think any opinions were changed

As expected, much of the public testimony this morning over the State Board of Education’s proposed changes to the social studies curriculum standards revolved around the two volatile Rs – race and religion.

Early in the hearing, former U.S. Education Secretary (and former Houston ISD Superintendent) Rod Paige urged the board to delay final action on the standards because he believes they don’t adequately deal with the nation’s history of slavery and civil rights. Paige is African American.

If they had their way, the arch conservative members of the board who have worked mightily to interject their own political and religious viewpoints into the standards would have everyone believe that liberal groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Texas Freedom Network, are behind all the criticism of the standards.

Explaining away criticism from Paige, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, will be more difficult for rightwingers to do, not that they won’t try. Paige urged the board to reexamine the history of slavery and civil rights, which were “dominant elements” of the nation’s history and helped shape who we are today.

Rep. Wayne Christian, one of the arch conservatives from the Texas House, argued that the board needed to be “racially blind” and not give preferential treatment to anyone because of race. That argument, however, ignores the fact that history wasn’t “racially blind” and that key events and personalities from history demand preferential treatment in public school classrooms. And that includes putting President Barack Obama’s name in the curriculum standards, something the board so far has declined to do. So far, Obama is an unnamed “first black president.”

Reacting, perhaps, to the prolonged debate over the board’s effort to deny the separation of church and state principle, one conservative parent bemoaned what she characterized as an effort among the board’s critics to promote a “freedom from religion” instead of a “freedom of religion.”

She was upset that her daughter, when in kindergarten, wasn’t allowed to sing “Jesus Loves Me” in class. I wonder how upset she would have been if another student had been prohibited from reciting portions of the Koran.

It depends on your viewpoint, I guess, but with all the other programs that were among the $1.2 billion in spending cuts announced by state leaders today, you may wonder why it was so important to save $750,000 for a steroid testing program for high school athletes. The program, after all, has randomly tested some 29,000 studentathletes over the past two years and has found only 11 who tested positive for the dangerous substances.

Some $250,000 was trimmed from the $1 million program in the Texas Education Agency’s budget, but most of the appropriation was saved.

You could argue, as I am sure Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst does, that the testing program is a strong deterrent against steroid use, an argument that is almost impossible to prove. Dewhurst was one of the main people championing the program when lawmakers created it in 2007. Testing positive can disqualify an athlete from competition.

Or you could argue, as I am sure many of Dewhurst’s detractors do, that the lieutenant governor, who considered the program a significant political victory, just can’t bring himself to let it go.

Dewhurst said the $1.2 billion worth of belttightening “will protect taxpayers’ hardearned money while maintaining essential services vital to the people of Texas.”

And vital to political resumes, no doubt