After the ridiculous debacle in the Texas State Board of Education, in which creationists on the board (including young earth creationist chairman Don McLeroy, appointed twice by Republican governor Rick Perry) managed to insert several absurd anti-science amendments into the public school science curriculum, some Texas legislators are fed up and discussing ways to curb the religious fanatics.

Texas state legislators are considering reining in the Board of Education amid frustration with the board’s politically charged debate over how to teach evolution.

The board last month approved a science curriculum that opens the door for teachers and textbooks to introduce creationist objections to evolution’s explanation of the origin and progression of life forms. Other parts of the curriculum were carefully worded to raise doubts about global warming and the big-bang theory of how the universe began.

While the science standards have drawn the most attention, the 15-member elected board has been embroiled in other controversies as well. Last year, it rejected a reading curriculum that teachers had spent nearly three years drafting. In its place, the board approved a document that a few members hastily assembled just hours before the vote.

Some lawmakers — mostly Democrats — say they have had enough.

The most far-reaching proposals would strip the Texas board of its authority to set curricula and approve textbooks. Depending on the bill, that power would be transferred to the state education agency, a legislative board or the commissioner of education. Other bills would transform the board to an appointed rather than elected body, require Webcasting of meetings, and take away the board’s control of a vast pot of school funding. Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, hasn’t taken a position on specific bills, a spokeswoman said.

It’s shameful that these kinds of anti-science initiatives are always owned by the Republican Party. Rick Perry may not have taken an official position on these issues, but he’s responsible for putting an ignorant, dishonest Biblical literalist in charge of teaching science to Texas schoolchildren. Twice. And he knew exactly what McLeroy stood for when he did it.