A new bill introduced in the Texas House of Representatives will require meetings of the Board of Education to be recorded in audio and video, broadcast over the Internet, and archived for reference—an excellent idea that will expose the anti-science agenda of Republican chairman Don McLeroy (appointed by Republican governor Rick Perry) and his young earth creationist drones for the whole world to see: Put Texas education board under a microscope.

Broadcasting board meetings and archiving the videos also might wake up voters to the fact that they elect these people. Religious conservatives gained a stranglehold on the board several years ago because they understood they could win elections in which few voters knew anything about them or their extreme ideas.

The result is there for anyone to see. Chairman Don McLeroy, Dunbar and others have turned the education board into a national joke. But when it comes to teaching Texas children, what they have done is not funny.

Last week’s discussion about shaping the teaching of science to allow doubts about evolution was surreal. Biology texts now must include “all sides” of scientific theories — in other words, future textbooks must include criticism of long-standing scientific theories, including evolution.

The underlying point is that a board majority wants creationism to be part of the scientific discussion. And they got enough of a foot in the door with their language about teaching “all sides” of scientific theories that publishers will have to include criticism of evolution if they want to sell science textbooks to Texas schools.

Yes, absolutely—shine the spotlight on these people and their dishonest backers at the Discovery Institute, who pretend to be scientists while making alliances with fanatical creationists who want to sneak fundamentalist religion into science classes. If they’re really confident that their views are correct, surely they won’t object to this…