Well, the steadfast ignorant in Texas have succeeded in muddling the science education standards.
Someone check a calendar. I thought this was the 21st Century. And here’s another thing that chaps my hide:
The standards adopted were generally good, but there are several that are flawed, fortunately most in minor ways that textbook authors and publishers can deal with. I think we can work around the few flawed standards. But the point is that there shouldn’t be ANY flawed standards. The science standards as submitted by the science writing teams were excellent and flaw-free. All the flaws were added by politically unscrupulous SBOE members with an extreme right-wing religious agenda to support Creationism.
Right-wing? It’s true that most young-earth creationists are right wingers, but that does not mean that being right wing, or conservative, implies a severe disconnect with reality. Most criminals are blacks, but you’d have to be as duplicitous as Michael Behe to construe that to mean that most blacks are criminals. Meanwhile, this minority of unscrupulous morons from the Organized Ignorance wing are being used to tar all conservatives.
So the damage done is double: Kids will be taught that the earth is flat in spite of the shape they can clearly see, and conservatism will be damaged in perception. And, in politics, perception is reality.
Too bad there isn’t a hell. If there were, everyone in the Discovery Institute would go there for their dishonesty.
What a shameful day for Texas.
