Steven Schafersman, the writer of the linked piece, will be live-blogging the next Texas SBOE meeting this Thursday and Friday, July 21-22.

“Many people don’t understand why public education is being deliberately torpedoed in Texas by its own Legislature and Governor. One might think that conservatives would support a traditional, long-existing, honorable, and valuable state system; after all, isn’t that the definition of conservatism—support of traditional values? What is more traditional and valuable in the United States than public education?

….snip…..

…it is clear that the intention of the Republican majority of state legislators is to deliberately damage public education in Texas. The reason for this, however, is not well known: Public schools damaged by underfunding will be more likely to fail and thus create a situation—the sole situation—for which the Supreme Court legally permits private religious school voucher programs.

…..snip……

This week the elected members of the SBOE, eleven Republicans and four Democrats, will decide what materials are adopted in Texas by majority vote. One of the biology instructional materials submitted explicitly promotes Intelligent Design Creationism. This supplement was not recommended by the TEA and Texas Commissioner of Education, but the radical and sectarian non-scientists on the SBOE could adopt it anyway by majority vote. Is this any way to teach science in the 21st Century?

http://www.texasobserver.org/oped/politicization-of-biology-instructional-materials-review-by-the-texas-education-agency