In a vote this morning, the Texas State Board of Education deadlocked on a motion to restore anti-evolution language in the state’s science curriculum: Split vote upholds Texas education board ruling to ax evolution ‘strengths and weaknesses’ rule.

AUSTIN – A last-ditch effort by social conservatives to require that Texas teachers cover the “weaknesses” in the theory of evolution in science classes was rejected by the State Board of Education Thursday in a split vote.

Board members deadlocked 7-7 on a motion to restore a long-time curriculum rule that “strengths and weaknesses” of all scientific theories – notably Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution – be taught in science classes and covered in textbooks for those subjects.

Voting for the requirement were the seven Republican board members aligned with social conservative groups. Against the proposal were three other Republicans and four Democrats.

While this may seem like good news (unless you’re a creationist who wants to impose your views on everyone else’s children), the final vote tomorrow could still go the other way—and you can be quite sure that the Texas GOP is putting major pressure on those three courageous Republicans who voted against the motion.

I call them “courageous” because I have first-hand knowledge of just how unpleasant and vindictive the GOP’s fundamentalist faction can be, when you step off the reservation and criticize them.

But that’s not the whole story, either. After they failed to restore the silly “weaknesses” language, the creationists on the school board proceeded to ram through several even more outrageous amendments, undermining scientific concepts such as common descent and the age of the universe: Science Under Siege in Texas.

OK, we’ve had a little time to digest all that went on today at the Texas State Board of Education. Without going through each of the many amendments that passed, here’s essentially what happened. This morning the board slammed the door on bringing creationism into classrooms through phony “weaknesses” arguments. But then board members turned around and threw open all the windows to pseudoscientific nonsense attacking core concepts like common descent and natural selection.

The amendments approved today are very problematic, regardless of the important victory over “strengths and weaknesses.” We anticipate that all 15 board members will be participating tomorrow, however, including a pro-science member who was absent today. So there is still time to reverse course.

Tomorrow, with the final vote, the board has a serious decision to make: is the science education of the next generation of Texas schoolchildren going to be based on fact-based, 21st-century science or on the personal beliefs of board members promoting phony arguments and pseudoscience?

You can still weigh in by sending e-mails to board members at sboeteks@tea.state.tx.us. Texas Education Agency staff will distribute e-mails to board members.