NEW! 2008 November 6 - The Expert Feedback Reports of Three
Texas Science Professors and Three Anti-Scientific Intelligent Design Creationists Are Now Avaiable
The Expert Feedback Reports of
the three anti-scientific Intelligent Design Creationists and the three mainstream science professors and
educators appointed by members of the Texas State Board of Education are now available online. A detailed
analysis of the three reports by the Creationsts will be published on this site soon.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
NEW! 2008 October 28 - The Discovery Institute and Texans
for Better Science Education Engage in the Swiftboating of Christine Castillo Comer
A new Investigative Report by
TCS President Dr. Steven Schafersman reveals the true story about the attempt by the Discovery Institute
and Texans for Better Science Education to Swiftboat Christine Castillo Comer, the former Texas
Education Agency Director of Science who was illegally forced to resign over a forwarded email message that announced
an upcoming pro-evolution, anti-Intelligent Design Creationism presentation. The TCS Report shows why
the TBSE press release and timeline and the DI column contain errors that have all the characteristics
of a classic political smear.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 October 15 - Texas Citizens for Science Strongly
Criticizes the Texas State Board of Education for Nominating Three Anti-Evolutionists and
Intelligent Design Creationists to the Six-Member Science Standards Review Panel
The Texas State Board of Education is at it again. This time some members
have nominated three anti-evolution Intelligent Design Creationists to the six-person panel
of university science professors that is supposed to review the draft science standards
written by panels of scientists and science teachers. TCS President Dr. Steven Schafersman has prepared
a Report and News Release that contains
information about these three individuals with links to the documents that demonstrates why the two
out-of-state nominees are unfit to be members of the review panel.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 October 14 - Texas Citizens for Science Supports
Laura Ewing for State Board of Education District 7, the Beaumont, Galveston, and Eastern Greater
Houston area.
Her opponent, Radical Religious Right Republican David Bradley, is unfit
for the office for many reasons. Texas Citizens for Science
is happy to reprint a Laura Ewing Campaign Flyer here.
TCS President Steven Schafersman will have much more to say about the Ewing-Bradley race and other State Board of Education races
in his Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 October 1 - 21st Century Science Coalition is Launched in
Texas to Oppose Anti-Evolutionists
Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin held a
press conference in Austin on September 30 to launch the newly-formed 21st Century Science
Coalition to defend the accuracy and reliability of science education in Texas public schools. You
can read about this new coalition in a brief TCS report about the
new 21st Century Science Coalition.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 September 28 - Radical Texas State Board
of Education Members Attempt to Force Their Sectarian Religious Views on Public Schools Using a
Discredited and Unconstitutional Bible Curriculum
Texas Citizens for Science President Steven Schafersman has written
an Investigative Report
about four Radical Religious-Right Republican members of the Texas State Board of Education who
have misused their office by promoting an unconstitutional and inaccurate Bible curriculum. The report
looks at several reasons why their act is unethical and may be illegal, and it examines the history of
the Texas Bible curriculum bill and law.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 September 26 - Texas Citizens for Science Vice-President
Paul Murray Reviews "What Every Christian Should Know About Intelligent Design" by William Dembski
Texas Citizens for Science Vice-President Paul Murray attended "The Bible and
Modern Science Conference" of the Center for Christian Apologetics in Houston, Texas. He attended
several of the presentations including the one by Intellligent Design authority William Dembski titled "What Every Christian
Should Know about Intelligent Design." He recorded and transcribed Dembski's presentation, and reviews it
in What Every Rational Person Should Know About ID.
2008 September 25 - The Texas Education Agency Has Released
the New K-12 Draft Science Standards for Public Review and Comment. TCS President Dr. Steven
Schafersman Reports on the New Standards and Reviews the Biology Standards
Every ten years, the Texas Education Agency must revise the curriculum standards
for the various disciplines in public schools. The standards are followed by authors and publishers
for textbook content, by teachers for course content, and by the TEA for standardized end-of-course
exams. This year and early next year it is the turn of Science. The just-completed revision of the
English Language Arts and Reading standards was highly contentious, and Science standards are likely
to be equally controversial. The proposed new and revised science standards are now available for
public reading and comment. Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman
has written a Report
about the standards and also briefly reviews the newly revised Biology standards.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 August 15 - Texas Education Agency Approves Expansion
of Grades 3-8 Online Education for Texas Virtual Academy Using the Anti-Science K12 Curriculum Once
Promoted by William Bennett
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman
has written an Investigative Report
that exposes the anti-science K12 curriculum used by the new
Texas Virtual Academy (TXVA) at Southwest Schools in Houston, Texas. The TXVA was designed to
funnel public tax money to Christian Fundamentalist and Biblically Literalist families who
homeschool their children, and now it has just been approved by the TEA for use in several more large
cities in the state. The TXVA uses the discredited K12 curriculum once promoted
by William Bennett, which avoids the e-word and allows parents to keep their children ignorant
of evolutionary biology. Both TEA and K12 plan to help homeschooled students remain uneducated about
evolution by allowing students to skip the evolution sections of their science courses and
keeping standardized state 10th-grade end-of-course biology exams free of questions about evolution
(but perhaps including a few questions about bogus "weaknesses" of evolution). Readers may also consult
the News Articles and Editorials that
have dealt with this topic since 2001.
TCS President Schafersman wrote about this topic in a 2003 article about
the K12 Anti-Science Curriculum of Virtual Charter Schools just
before the Legislature considered and rejected it. Unfortunately, this ugly, smelly beast did not die a natural
death, but was kept hidden until the Commissioner of Education could release it to the thousands of families that want
to give their children a religious, anti-scientific education at taxpayer expense. Ultimately, with the TXVA, Texans
will pay for a third-rate science education that further fails our students while shoveling millions of dollars
of public tax money to right-wing virtual academies and politically-connected, anti-science, online curricula companies.
You may leave comments about this report on
Schafersman's blog column in
the Houston Chronicle Evo.Sphere Blog.
2008 August 13 - Members and Supporters of Texas
Citizens for Science in Houston Can Register for Free for the Bible and Modern
Science Conference sponsored by the Center for Christian Apologetics
The Center for Christian Apologetics is sponsoring a Creationism conference
in Houston on Saturday, August 23. The title is The Bible and Modern Science: What Every Christian
Should Know. One of the organizers of the conference, Kurt Wise, Director of CCA, has
offered free registration to the
first ten atheist members of TCS who request registration by email. Hopefully, CCA will also allow
some of the religious members of TCS free registration, too. Request soon to be among the first ten,
and certainly before August 18, when registration closes. Seating is limited.
2008 August 12 - Texas Citizens for Science
President Now Has a New Texas Evolution and Education Blog on the Houston
Chronicle Website
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman
now has a new blog on the Houston Chronicle website named
Evo.Sphere
in which he writes columns about evolution and education in Texas. He shares
this new blog with five University of Houston biology professors who write
about evolutionary biology. The Chronicle has two other new science blogs named
Atmo.Sphere that covers climate issues and
Cosmo.Sphere
that covers space science. These new blogs were initiated by Eric Berger, the
Chronicle's science writer who has a blog named
SciGuy.
Here is a list of the first nine blog columns in the order written.
-
New Blog about Evolution and Education in Texas
-
Did Thomas Jefferson Believe in Intelligent Design Creationism?
-
Let's Explore "Explore Evolution"
-
The Disjunctive Duality of Science Distinction
-
Evolving Toward a Compromise
-
Was Thomas Jefferson a Deist? Is Science the Best Describer of
Reality?
-
The Evolutionary Origins of Religion
-
Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, and Warren Chisum: Let's Get Them
Out of the Way
-
Texas Education Agency Approves Expansion of Grades 3-8 Online
Education for Texas Virtual Academy Using the Anti-Science K12 Curriculum Once
Promoted by William Bennett
Columns, commentaries, and reviews by Steven Schafersman which formerly
appeared on the TCS website will now be found on the Evo.Sphere blog.
A list of titles with direct links to the blog posts will be kept updated here. Long
research articles, essays, and public testimonies will continue to appear here.
2008 July 20 - Testimony about Texas Science Standards to the State
Board of Education in Austin, 2008 July 17, by TCS President Steven Schafersman
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman
presented Testimony to the Texas
State Board of Education about the scientifically inappropriate language of "strengths and
weaknesses" in the state's science standards. He advocated that the standards be revised to remove this
poor language.
2008 July 15 - Texas Citizens
for Science Testimony to the House Public Education Committee in
Austin, 2008 July 16, concerning the Texas State Board of Education
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman's
Testimony to
the Texas House Public Education Committee concerning the illegal and damaging activities of
the Texas State Board of Education is now available. In the testimony, TCS documents the
continuing efforts of the SBOE to censor science textbooks and injure science standards.
2008 July 13 - Science Education in Texas: Keeping It Religion-Free.
Speakers to Highlight Dangers of Creationism Encroaching into the Public Schools.
The event is at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday evening, July 16, UT Austin
Campus, Burdine Hall, Room 108.
Admission is free, and free parking is available at C Lot after 5:45 p.m. and in
the LBJ Lot anytime.
Science education in Texas is under attack as never before, as evidenced by
the recent ouster of State Director of Science Education Christine Castillo
Comer for the offense of promoting science education. Now, as Comer pursues her
lawsuit for wrongful termination, the Center for Inquiry-Austin, Texas Citizens
for Science, and University of Texas Section of Integrative Biology invite the
public to a forum on the fight to keep evolution at the forefront in science
education.
Speakers and talks include:
Steven Schafersman - How Will Texas Oppose Aggressive, Organized Creationism in
Texas?
Schafersman is a 22-year veteran college and university science professor, and
founder of the Texas Citizens for Science, where he has been president since
1980. His talk will focus on how Texas science supporters will oppose the
continuing efforts of those who willfully demean science education.
Ed Brayton - Yes Virginia, It Really Is All About Religion.
Brayton, founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science, is the voice
behind the popular blogs Dispatches from the Culture Wars and The Panda's Thumb.
He will show, despite claims to the contrary by proponents, the solely religious
nature of the Intelligent Design movement.
Josh Rosenau - Nothing New Under the Sun: The Evolution of Creationism.
Rosenau, a staffer at the National Center for Science Education, describes the
central irony of the creation-evolution controversy-how rapidly and frequently
creationism evolves. He will show how creationist strategies have changed, what
to expect in the future, and how to protect accurate science education in the
public schools.
A question and answer period will follow the talks.
2008 July 13 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reviews the New Lousisian Science Education Act that
was Inspired by the Discovery Institute's Academic Freedom Bill
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman will soon
complete an essay review about new Lousisian Science Education Act that permits and even encourages
public school science instructors to teach pseudoscientific objections to evolution, the origin
of life, global warming, and human cloning. The new law implicitly even allows teachers to teach
various forms of Creationism, including Intelligent Design Creationism, and allows school
districts to purchase Creationist "supplemental textbooks" such as Explore Evolution. Several
states came close to passing this notorious anti-scientific legislation, but Louisiana was
the first to be deceived. Until the essay is completed, please visit the webpage that
contains News Articles and Editorials about
this new law.
2008 July 13 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reviews the Lawsuit Filed Against the Texas Education Agency
by Christine Castillo Comer
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman will soon
complete an essay review about the Chris Comer lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency
that analyzes the Petition's legal arguments. Until then, please visit the webpage that
contains News Articles and Editorials about
this story. Also, you can obtain a copy of the
Chris Comer Lawsuit Petition on the TCS website.
2008 June 4 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reviews the Efforts of Creationist Members of the Texas State
Board of Education to Force "Weaknesses" of Evolution into the Texas
Science Standards
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman has
written an essay review about the efforts of Biblical Creationists on the Texas State Board of
Education to Keep Anti-Science "Weaknesses" in
the Texas science standards. The seven radical religious right members of the
Texas SBOE want to keep the "strengths and weaknesses" language currently in the Texas science standards
and add specific alleged but bogus "weaknesses of evolution" to further undermine science
education in the state. The essay reviews two long and important news
reports just published about the forthcoming Texas science standards revision and provides
valuable context and historical information about the "weaknesses" language. It also
looks at the humorous responses by Discovery Institute officers who apparently based their
critiques of one of the news articles on only its headline.
2008 June 2 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reports on the Petition of the Institute for Creation Research
to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board That Details the ICR Grounds
for Appeal ("Viewpoint Discrimination") and Expected Courtroom Litigation
Texas Citizens for Science has written
a Review of ICR's Petition that
comments on the recent Petition for Contested Case Status the ICR has published to appeal
the decision of the THECB to deny its appliction for the right to award Masters of Science
Degrees in Science Education. The ICR
Petition (45 MB PDF file) is written in the form
of a legal brief and is obviously meant to suggest that litigation will be
forthcoming if the Petition is not granted. The Petition spells out the legal
theories that the ICR plans to use in a court battle, specifically "viewpoint
discrimination," which is illegal in some circumstances but not in this case
according to TCS President Dr. Steven Schafersman.
2008 May 11 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reviews the Creationist Pseudo-Documentary Expelled: No Intelligence
Allowed, Refutes the False Argument that "Darwinism" Leads to Euthanasia, Naziism, and
the Holocaust, and Responds to a Midland, Texas, Newspaper's Favorable Review of Expelled
Texas Citizens for Science President Dr. Steven Schafersman has
written a Review of the Creationist
pseudo-documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed that refutes its false argument that
science and evolution ("Darwinism") led directly to involuntary sterilization, euthanasia,
Naziism, and the Holocaust. The Review also reprints a published letter to the editor of the
Midland Reporter-Telegram that responds to a credulous and misleading
positive review of Expelled by the paper's entertainment editor.
2008 April 29 - Texas Citizens
for Science Claims the Institute for Creation Research
Continues to Falsely Advertise its Masters Degree in Science
Education Despite Having No Accreditation or Certification
Texas Citizens for Science, an advocacy organization whose purpose
is to defend the accuracy and reliability of science in Texas public education, claims
in a Press Release that
the Institute for Creation Research continues to fraudulently advertise
its M.S. Degree in Science Education. "ICR abandoned its TRACS accreditation in November,
2007, and they failed to win official Texas Certification to offer the degree while they
seek new accreditation from an accrediting association recognized in Texas," says
TCS President Steven Schafersman. "ICR has never been a degree mill in the past, but now
they are beginning to act like one unless they have some secret accreditation we don't know
about." The Texas Citizens for Science Press Release
also responds to ICR's published negative reaction
to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's decision to reject the ICR application.
Update: The
THECB Media Advisory
(PDF file) that contains an Overview, FAQs, and the Commissioner's Recommendation
on the ICR Request for Certification is now available online. In addition, the THECB has made available
all of its public record ICR Documents
on a single page of its website, including the scientist and science educator evaluation of the revised ICR
proposal, the original staff recommendation to deny ICR its request, and ICR's THECB Progress Report
listed below. Finally, ICR has published Academic
Freedom in the Balance, an essay that describes their view of the controversy and the
legal theory (academic freedom) they intend to use in future litigation, and also made available
their 371-page THECB Progress Report, the
complete set of documents ICR submitted to the THECB for the revised proposal. The latest ICR Acts & Facts
newsletter, May 2008, has finally changed the back cover to remove the ad that states that one can earn a
"M.S. Degree in Science Education" from ICR.
2008 April 21 - Texas Citizens
for Science Will Ask the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to
Deny the Request of the Institute for Creation Research for a Certificate of
Authority to Award Masters Degrees in Science Education
On April 23 in Austin, Texas Citizens for Science will request
that members of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board deny the request of the
Institute for Creation Research for a official Certificate of Authority to be able to
grant masters degrees in science education. The ICR is a "creation-science research
group" and a "Christian ministry," as described by its own president, not a legitimate
science education institution. Furthermore, its graduate program teaches Creationist pseudoscience,
not legitimate science or science education, and it fails to meet several of the published
THECB Standards for graduate degree programs in Texas. The evidence for these statements can be
found in the Public
Testimony of TCS President Steven Schafersman.
Update: A collection
of news articles,
letters, and essays about ICR and the April meetings of the THECB.
2008 April 15 - National Center for Science
Education has Created an Outstanding Website that Exposes Expelled, the Creationist
Faux-Documentary, and Has a Video of Chris Comer, Who Was Really Expelled (by
the Texas Education Agency) for Possessing Pro-Science Sentiments
 |
Millions of dollars have been spent promoting Ben Stein's Expelled:
No Intelligence Allowed to fundamentalist church groups, but that money would have
been better spent on fact checkers. www.ExpelledExposed.com,
a website launched today by the National Center for Science Education (NCSE),
reveals the truth behind the creationist movie's misrepresentations. Throughout the movie,
Ben Stein claims that "Big Science" represses intelligent design to advance an atheistic
agenda, but that is a Creationist "Big Lie." Many evolutionary scientists, such as Ken Miller and Francis Collins,
are theists. Intelligent Design fails on scientific grounds, not because of atheistic philosophy.
Evolution is just a natural process, with no universally-agreed upon theistic implications
except those in the minds of individuals. Evolution did demolish the argument
from design, but such arguments are not the reason most people believe in God. More insidious
is the movie's attempt to link evolution to racism and the Holocaust,
for that is also untrue--in fact, it is a vicious libel
(see "Darwinism
is Racism": Refutation of a Creationist Argument).
The new NCSE Expelled Exposed website is a
resource for journalists, teachers, and curious moviegoers who want the full story behind
the Creationist faux-documentary Expelled. Read
the NCSE Expelled
Exposed Press Release.
|
2008 February 29 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reveals the Young-Earth Creationist Beliefs of Fort Worth State Board of
Education Candidate Barney Maddox
UPDATE: 2008 March 5 - Pat Hardy and Mary Helen Berlanga
win their primary elections!
The Texas primary on March 4 is a potentially dangerous day for
math, English, and especially science education in Texas public schools. Young-Earth
Creationist Barney Maddox is challenging incumbant Pat Hardy for the District 11 Fort Worth
position on the State Board of Education. Barney Maddox demonstrates little understanding
of modern science; instead, he is an aggressive advocate for the most credulous and vulgar
form of Creationism. Texas Citizens for Science explains why, in a new
report titled Young-Earth
Creationist Barney Maddox is an Unqualified Candidate for the Texas State Board of
Education, Barney Maddox would be a disaster for Texas education if he won the primary. The report
analyzes his Creationist writings and explains why they are illogical and deceptive.
Update: A collection
of news articles,
letters, and essays about Barney Maddox and the March 4 primary is available.
Updated! 2008 March 26 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reviews the Attempt by the Religious Right Members of the
State Board of Education to Force Discredited English Language Arts
Standards Onto Texas English Teachers
On 2008 February 13, the extreme-right members of the Texas SBOE
proposed a motion to consolidate updated English Language Arts (ELA) standards written in 1997 by Conservative
Donna Garner with the official proposed TEA standards written by Texas ELA teachers
with the help of a StandardsWork facilitator. About 25 ELA teachers testified against
this power play, and several Republican and Democratic SBOE members spoke against it.
Texas Citizens for Science analyzes this episode in detail in a new
report, Texas
State Board of Education Members Attempt to Adopt Discredited ELA Standards.
The reason for the report is because the same right-wing SBOE members could try the same thing with substitute
biology standards written by the Discovery Institute later this year.
Updated! 2008 May 24 A collection
of news articles and essays about the
realignment of ELA standards is available.
2008 February 11 - Texas Citizens
for Science Reviews the Illegal Rejection of a Math Textbook by the Texas
State Board of Education
In 2007 November, under unusual circumstances, the Texas SBOE precipitously
and without statutory justification rejected a McGraw Hill mathematics textbook from the conforming
math textbook list. The math text rejection was illegal and many individuals
criticized the State Board for this action. Then, in 2008 January, a majority of SBOE members
refused to allow a minority report about the math textbook rejection incident into the record.
Why is this episode important for science textbooks and science education? Texas Citizens for Science
explains all in a new report, Texas
State Board of Education's Rejection of a Math Textbook is Illegal, that reveals
why the SBOE rejected the math book and analyzes the illogical and illegal reasons
that SBOE member Terri Leo uses to justify the rejection.
Update: A collection
of news articles
and editorials about the illegal SBOE math textbook rejection is available.
2008 February 6 - Texas Citizens
for Science Responds to the Discovery Institute's Effort to Damage
Proposed Science Standards in Florida (and Texas) by Inserting "Critiques" of Evolution
A retired engineer in Florida, who happens to be a member of the Framers' Committee
for Florida's new science standards, has submitted a minority report to request
that "students should learn why some scientists give scientific critiques of standard
models of neo-Darwinian evolution or models of the chemical origin of life."
Responding to this well-known Creationist ploy--part of the Discovery Institute's anti-science
marketing strategy to damage science standards in several states--Texas Citizens for
Science has written a report, The
Alleged "Weaknesses" or "Critiques" of "Darwinism," that refutes the DI's argument.
2008 February 9 - Texas Citizens
for Science Responds to the "Darwinism is Racism" Creationist Argument
A sociology professor and pastoral counselor repeats
the ancient Creationist argument that "Darwinism is Racism" in an op-ed column in
The Philadelpia Inquirer. Not one to let a deliberate anti-Darwin misrepresentation go
un-refuted, Texas Citizens for Science has written a Refutation
of the "Darwinism is Racism" Argument. Updated with information about Ken Ham, the
founder of Answers in Genesis and the country's largest Creation Museum.
2008 January 15 - The
Institute for Creation Research Proposes a New Argument to Support Its Effort To
Obtain Texas Certification for Its Masters Degree Program in Science Education
In an email message to its friends, the Institute for Creation Research proposes
what TCS terms The Disjunctive Duality of Science
Distinction, a new argument to support its effort to obtain Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board approval for its masters degree program in science education. The
argument is actually an old one. It posits that two types of science exist, "experimental"
science and "forensic, historical, or orgins" science. Only the first is real science, while
the second--which, needless to say, includes evolutionary biology--is not a reliable science.
Texas Citizens for Science posts the ICR message and provides a brief refutation of the argument.
A new book is available from the
National Academy of Sciences:
Science, Evolution, and Creationism, 2008 Edition
|
The National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine
have released SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM, a book designed to give
the public a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current scientific
understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom.
Recent advances in science and medicine, along with an abundance of
observations and experiments over the past 150 years, have reinforced
evolution's role as the central organizing principle of modern biology, said
the committee that wrote the book.
The Academy, which operates under Congressional mandate to advise the
government on scientific matters, issued the report at a time
when the theory of evolution, first proposed in the 19th century, faces
renewed attack by religious Creationists in the United States. Despite the
overwhelming evidence supporting evolution, opponents have repeatedly tried
to introduce nonscientific views into public school science classes through
the teaching of various forms of creationism, intelligent design, or bogus
"weaknesses" of evolution. Copies of the press
release and news articles are available. |
2007 December 20 - Texas Citizens for Science
Investigation Reveals the Monetary Reasons of the Institute for Creation Research to
Win Certification from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
Texas Citizens for Science has written a Press
Release that describes the major motivation for the rapid, incompetent,
and--until now--stealthy process of the ICR site evaluation and certification approval by two committees of
the THECB. ICR is on-track to make millions of dollars by charging tuition from
students in the U.S. and many foreign countries for its new on-line distance education Graduate School Creationism
program. Upon completion of the on-line course of study and full payment of fees to the ICR, each student
will be awarded a legal, authentic, and Texas-certified Masters Degree in Science Education. This
money-making but pseudoscientific travesty depends on winning certification from the THECB, which until now
has been progressing smoothly and quietly.
2007 December 17 (Updated 2008 January 6 and 28) - Texas Citizens for Science
Investigation Reveals the Hidden Agenda of the Institute for Creation Research to
Gain Accreditation in Texas to Award Master's Degrees in Science Education
Also, TCS Posts the Official Texas Higher Education Coordinating
Board's Report of Evaluation of ICR
Texas Citizens for Science has written a Report
on The Institute for Creation Research and its ongoing effort to deceive
the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and convince it to give ICR the Certification it wants. ICR
will probably not mention that California refused to give ICR it's official State Certification, or mention the
Biblical Literalist TRACS accreditation ICR had for many years but recently terminated, or acknowledge that ICR's true
purpose is not to educate students about science but to pervert science education in the United States.
To cap it off, TCS has obtained and posted the official THECB Report
of Evaluation of ICR and ICR's Response. Also now available is the full record of ICR's quest for
accreditation in California, Degrees
of Folly by William Bennetta. You won't believe what is in these documents!
Update: A collection
of news articles
and editorials about ICR's application for THECB certification is available.
2007 December 14 - The Institute of Creation Research
wants the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to Give ICR Certification to
Seek Accreditation to Grant Graduate Degrees in Science Education in Texas
The Institute for Creation Research (ICR), now located in Dallas, Texas, in their new
"Henry M. Morris Center for Christian Leadership," wants to teach graduate students about their
particular religious ideology, Young Earth Creationism. To do this, ICR needs
the help of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to give it
official state Certification to seek accreditation to grant Master's Degrees in Science Education. Although
this may sound crazy--since ICR is a religious ministry that promotes Young Earth Creationism and seeks to
proselytize others in its Biblical Literalist and Fundamentalist faith--ICR actually
believes it is a scientific organization worthy of training students and
awarding them graduate degrees in science, and has never hesitated to try to fool public
officials and suck them into its crazy beliefs. To expose this con game, Texas Citizens
for Science wrote a Press Release that
publicized the fact that the ICR's request is going to be considered by the Certification
Advisory Council of the THECB today.
December 11, 2007 - Texas Biology Professors Sign
Open Letter to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott that Defends Evolution as a "Central
Pillar in Modern Science Education"
Over 100 Texas university biology professors signed
an Open Letter to Robert
Scott, the Commissioner of Education for Texas. The letter expressed concern for the forced
dismissal of former TEA Science Director Chris Comer, but its main purpose was to defend
evolutionary biology as a central concept in modern science education. The letter stated
that it is "inappropriate" for the Texas Education Agency to expect its Director of
Science to "remain neutral" about evolution. The letter concludes by saying
that the Texas Education Agency "should work to bolster evolution education in Texas
rather than undermining it."
Update: December 19, 2007 - Commissioner Robert Scott
wrote a Reply to
the Texas biology professors in which he defended his actions. In turn, Dr. David Bolnick
wrote a Response to
Commissioner Scott in which he further explained and justified the concerns of the Texas biology
professors, especially describing scientists' long-standing criticism of the "stengths and weaknesses"
Science Process Rule 3A.
November 29, 2007 - Texas Citizens for Science Criticizes
the Texas Education Agency and State Board of Education for the Forced Resignation of
Science Curriculum Director Chris Comer and Their Plan to Politicize Science Education in Texas
On November 7, 2007, Texas Education Agency Director of Science Curriculum Christine
Comer was forced to resign on illegitimate and trumped-up charges. Her forced resignation was
revealed publicly today in an Austin American-Statesman news article. Texas Citizens for Science
President Steven Schafersman reveals the true reasons for her forced resignation in
a report titled TEA Science Director
Forced to Resign. The report makes clear that there is an effort underway by some TEA administrators
and some members of the SBOE to distort and diminish evolution instruction in Texas public schools
by requiring that the "weaknesses" and "controversies" of evolutionary biology be presented. The
effort is part of a duplicitous marketing campaign created by Intelligent Design Creationists of
the Discovery Institute to damage science education in general, and biological evolution instruction in
particular, in our country. Getting rid of the the agency's Director of Science--a supporter
of accurate and reliable evolution instruction--was the first step in this mendacious campaign in Texas.
This is the latest effort by religiously-inspired public education officials to politicize science education
in our state's public schools and deprive students of the benefits of 21st Century Science.
Update: A collection
of news articles
and editorials about the Chris Comer forced resignation is available.
November 15, 2007 - Texas Citizens for Science Criticizes
the Texas State Board of Education Proposal to Change the TEKS Review and Revision Process
by Adding a Facilitator Who Will Have Final Responsibility to Write Science Standards
During public testimony on Thursday, November 15, Texas Citizens for Science President
Steven Schafesman criticized the SBOE
Proposal to revise the process by which Texas science standards
are reviewed and revised, the most significant aspect of which is to hire a new Facilitator who
will have the final responsibility and authority to write the science TEKS. A professional
Facilitator was hired only a few hours before to handle the English Language Arts and Reading TEKS which had
been written by teachers, reviewed by experts, but not yet finalized. TCS expressed several
serious concerns about the new proposal, which was written in an ambiguous and poorly-thought
out manner that raised many questions and red flags. The Facilitator proposal will probably be
approved, but if safeguards are not put in place to protect the accuracy and reliability of science
content during the process, it is likely that science education will suffer.
November 7, 2007 - Texas Citizens for Science Reviews
New Documents Promoting Texas Science Solutions and Standards
Three Reviews of New Texas Science Standards
Documents are now available. The reviews were written by Steven Schafersman, President of
Texas Citizens for Science. In them, Dr. Schafersman provides links to and reviews the just released Draft Report
of the Commission for a College Ready Texas (CCRT), the draft Texas College Readiness Standards (TCRS), and
two policy reports of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The documents are all favorably reviewed for
the most part, with significant omissions identified and corrected, and anyone interested in the
fate of public school science education in Texas will want to read both the
original documents and their TCS reviews. The first two reviews served as public written testimony
by Steven Schafesman when he addressed the Texas State Board of Education during public
testimony on Wednesday, November 14, in Austin.
July 17, 2007 - Science Textbook Selection and Education
in Texas: An Issue of Separation of Church and State
A new Powerpoint presentation on Textbook Selection,
Science Education, and Church-State Separation in Texas (1.2 MB) is now
available. This presentation was given in brief form at The Texas Lyceum in Austin on July 13. The Texas
Lyceum is a non-partisan organization that brings experts together once a year to address a specific controversial
topic. This year the title of the conference was "Separation of Church and State--Why?" Steven Schafersman, TCS
President, described why the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution is responsible for ensuring that
Texas public school students continue to have access to accurate and reliable science textbooks and curricula.
July 9, 2007 - Texas Representatives Charlie Howard and Warren Chisum
Successfully See Discriminatory, Sectarian, and Anti-Science HB 3678 Signed Into Law
The new, so-called Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act
is the latest expression of the radical religious-right ideology that dominates Texas politics.
Howard and Chisum, both extreme right-wing fundamentalist Protestant Christians who repeatedly attempt to force their
sectarian religious views into the Texas public school system using the power of the state and their public offices, claim the Act will
allow voluntary student expression of religous viewpoints in the schools. The true purpose of this new stealth law,
however, is to enable the proselytization of minority-faith and non-faith students within public schools, and
to make public school administrators complicit in this violation of the Constitution. One effect of the new statute
will be to allow creationist explanations for natural phenomena, much to the further
detriment of science education in Texas.
Update: A collection of news articles
and editorials about the Religious Expression Act is available.
February 16, 2007 - Texas Representative Warren Chisum, R-Pampa,
Sends Anti-Science and Anti-Semitic Memo to Every Texas House Member
The new Chisum-Bridges Memo Controversy
is another manifestation of the radical religious-right ideology that dominates Texas politics.
Warren Chisum, Republican Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, sent an anti-Semitic memo written
by Ben Bridges--a Georgia State Representative who advocates creationism, geocentricity,
and a non-rotating and non-revolving Earth--to every Texas House member. Bridge's memo claims that
evolutionary biology is a conspiracy of Jewish "Kabbalists" documented in ancient "Rabbinic
writings." The memo has been universally denounced by scientists, science bloggers, and the Jewish
Anti-Defamation League.
September 18, 2006 - The Texas Attorney General Has Written
an Opinion That Refuses to Return the State Board's Pre-1995 Authority Over Specific Textbook Content
The new Opinion
is a major victory for Texas citizens and the Texas economy, since students--future knowledge workers--will
continue to use high-quality textbooks free of political and religious censorship. This
is especially true for science textbooks, which have been the target of censorship by
religious-right members of the State Board of Education for decades.
Read the Texas Citizens for Science Press
Release for details about the just-released decision.
March 24, 2006 - A New Threat to Texas Science Education from State Board
of Education Member Terri Leo
Terri Leo seeks an opinion from the Texas Attorney General to overturn the 1995 Texas education
legislation that removed State Board authority to determine general textbook content. Texas Citizens
for Science has submitted A Brief that supports
the original 1996 opinion.
Attorney General Greg Abbott is currently reviewing the Leo opinion
request that seeks to reverse a 1996 attorney general opinion that upheld the 1995
legislation that reformed the Texas Education Code. This legislation
stripped the State Board of Education of its authority to control the content of textbooks adopted
in Texas, a power it had used for decades to censor science, history, social studies, economics,
health education, environmental science, and government textbooks. Current censorship by
the State Board must be done publicly, with great effort and
embarrassment, so the current Texas Education Code is a hindrance to the radical religious right members
who want to censor textbooks easily and secretly, as they could in the past. Their failure to
censor biology textbooks in 2003 is believed to be the primary motivation in their attempt to overturn
the current interpretation of the Code. This latest effort to damage science education is a serious
one that must be confronted.
Texas Citizens for Science president Steven Schafersman has written A Brief
to the Texas Attorney General that supports the original 1996 Attorney General opinion. In it,
he analyzes the language and legislative history of the 1995 bill, and examines the arguments used by Terri Leo in
her opinion request. He finds that her arguments are illogical and disingenuous, and requests that the Attorney
General reaffirm the 1996 opinion. The link above will take you to the Brief and links to all the relevant documents,
bills, and statutes.
February 8, 2006 - A New Threat to Texas Science Education from Texans for
Better Science Education Foundation
Texans for Better Science Education Foundation (TBSEF) has a new ploy to promote intelligent
design creationism in Texas.
TBSEF is offering Texas science teachers and librarians a free creationist
DVD, Where Does the Evidence Lead?, to show
in science classes throughout the state. The DVD is actually a version of the well-known creationist
DVD Unlocking the Mystery of Life developed by the Discovery Institute, the primary
organization promoting intelligent design creationism in the United States.
Texas Citizens for Science president Steven Schafersman has written A
Review and Critique of Where Does the Evidence Lead? in a letter to Texas science teachers and librarians, in
which he carefully demonstrates why it is inappropriate, unscientific, and almost certainly illegal to show
this DVD in any Texas public school science classroom.
January 25, 2005 - House Bills 220 and 2534 Threatened to Undo State Law That Inhibits Textbook Censorship
Radical Religious Right Republican State Representatives Charlie Howard
and Warren Chisum wanted to return Texas to its Dark Ages of textbook censorship.
A new TCS analysis, House
Bills 220 and 2534 Will Return Texas to Its Dark Ages, has just been published.
In it, Steven Schafersman, President of Texas Citizens for Science, brieflly describes the history of
textbook censorship in Texas by its State Board of Education and explains why
House Bills 220 and 2534 would have made it easier for current State Board members to censor textbooks by
forcing publishers to change and insert textbook content that agrees with their extremist political, ideological, and
religious beliefs, as well as directly promote bigotry in public schools.
Note added (April 26, 2005): Both of these bills died in committee. It will be difficult to pass these again for two years,
until the next session of the Texas Legislature. TCS will monitor any special session for school finance to
be sure that bills such as these do not become law. In addition, vouchers, virtual charter schools, and public
school privatization all failed. With the exception of school finance (a big exception), this session has
been a victory for public school education, students, and Texas citizens. We must always be vigilant, however, against the
efforts of the 4Rs (Radical Republican Religious Right) to destroy public education in Texas.
To oppose anti-science legislation by writing to your state legislator, you can go to
the Texas House of
Representatives and to the Texas
Senate.
November 10, 2004 - Texas Adopted Censored, Inadequate, and Dangerous Health
Education Textbooks in 2004
The new health textbooks will increase the rates
of teenage pregnancy and STD infection in Texas because they omit
scientifically-reliable information about human sexuality.
On November 5, 2004, the Texas State Board of
Education finally approved the censored health education textbooks
for use in Texas public schools for the next six years. As reported
earlier, these books are inadequate and dangerous, because they omit
information about contraception and prophylaxis to help prevent
unwanted teenage pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases.
Instead the health texts adopt an abstinence-only method of sex
education, a method revealed in numerous scientific studies to be
ineffectual, counter-productive, and thus dangerous. Please read the
November 5, 2004, TCS
Press Release on this topic (this
press release is also available as a Word
document).
The original Written
Testimony of Texas Citizens for
Science is available online and as a PDF
file and Word
document. This testimony was submitted
to the State Board of Education for the textbook hearing in Austin on
Wednesday, July 14, and is the most complete description of the
issues and problems with the health textbooks. The document reviews
and analyzes the treatment of sex education in five different health
education textbooks. In brief, the five 2005 health textbooks
submitted for adoption this year treat teenage sexuality even worse
than the 1998 book described in the Health
Textbooks section: all promote
abstinence-only sex education and avoid mentioning any other methods
of prophylaxis for prevention of STDs and contraception for
prevention of pregnancy. Four are "Texas Editions," and you know what
that means: keeping the students ignorant. Over 60% of Texas students
engage in sexual activity before graduating from high school, so the
textbooks, the state health education curriculum, and the state's
public education officials are all complicit in the extremely high
teenage pregnancy and STD rates in Texas. Please go to the
Health
Textbooks section for further
information.
Watch this section for future reports on (1) the effort of
some Texas state legislators to allow a state voucher program for private religious
schools, and (2) the renewed effort to get Texas to adopt William Bennett's flawed and
science-censored virtual charter home-school curriculum.
Texas Citizens for Science was
formed in January, 2003, to promote the use of accurate and reliable science in
Texas public education, government, and institutions. TCS is the
successor to the Texas Council for Science Education that was active
during 1980-1994 in support of the same goals.
During its first year, TCS devoted its
attention to reviewing biology textbooks that were adopted by the
Texas Education Agency in 2003 for Texas high schools, and defending
their scientific accuracy in public hearings before the Texas State
Board of Education.
In 2004, after the biology textbook adoption
success in 2003, TCS began to work in four new areas
identified by the new navigation menu choices listed above each
page.
- First, health education textbooks were adopted
by the Texas Education Agency in 2004. These books should have discussed
sex education, sexually-transmitted diseases, contraception, the use
of prophylactics, birth control, abortion, homosexuality, and the
nature of modern marriage and families in a realistic, guilt-free,
fear-free, and scientifically-accurate manner. The books did not. Instead,
the health education texts were pervasively abstinence-only, and will only
increase the high teenage pregnancy, STD, and HIV rates in Texas, which are
among the highest in the nation. TCS attempted to prevent this, but we failed.
This failure will have a very detrimenntal effect
on the health and well-being of young women in Texas.
- Second, an organization named the Texas Earth
Science Task Force (TESTF), and later the Texas Earth Science Alliance (TESA),
has been working since 2002 to make it
possible for high school students to choose Earth and Space Science
as one of their required high school science courses and
adding a fourth year of science to the required high school
science curriculum and graduation requirements. TCS has always
supported the TESTF and TESA in their efforts and has created a special TCS
Earth Science page that contains Earth Science resources and TESTF
materials. The State Board of Education finally passed rules in Novermber, 2006, to create a new
4X4 science and math curriculum that now requires four years of both math and
science for high school graduation. In addition, the SBOE created the new Earth and Space
Science Course. TCS played a major role in passing the new rules and obtainng the new
ESS course. TCS will continue to play a major role in the design and
implementation of the new ESS course, especially the new ESS curriculum standards.
- Third, Texas Governor Rick Perry recently
appointed a Texas Energy Planning Council to create a new Texas
Energy Plan. TCS will monitor the TEPC's activities and provide
input to TEPC members to ensure that the energy policy the TEPC
develops for oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy will be
scientifically accurate, balanced, fair, and sustainable. Most
importantly, TCS will seek to ensure that renewable forms of
energy (wind, solar, geothermal, biomass) and energy conservation
are not neglected in the TEPC's deliberations and as part of the
final Texas Energy Plan. (Note added, Jan. 2005: This effort did not
fail, but was not completely satisfactory. The TEPC's recommendations
advocate an increased use of renewable energy in Texas (this was good but
expected), and made some weak recommendations to reduce energy waste and
inefficiencies (these were welcome but woefully insufficient). TCS made two
presentations to the TEPC suggesting strong incentives to reduce gasoline waste
by fuel-inefficient vehicles, but this proposal was ignored.)
- Fourth, Republican Governor Rick Perry,
Republicans in the Texas Legislature, and Republicans on the State
Board of Education are currently attempting to completely reform
the character of Texas public education in far-reaching ways.
Teacher qualifications have already been weakened so that new
teachers are no longer required to have the usual Education School
pedagogical training. Abstinence-only sex education was recently
mandated in health textbooks. School financing will be significantly
changed, perhaps in ways that inhibit communities from raising
property taxes to adequately support their local schools, and some
districts may not sufficiently funded as in the past. More
ominously, Republicans hope to add vouchers for religious and
private schools, and hope to create virtual charter schools to
support home-schooling at state expense. These new state-funded
vouchers and virtual schools would not be subject to the same
curriculum and instructional requirements as the public schools.
Since religious schools and home schools almost all intentionally
use curricula that distort modern science in favor of
non-scientific religious beliefs such as creationism, intelligent
design, flood geology, and a young Earth, some of these proposals
will greatly damage reliable science education in Texas. Since
many thousands of Texas students--who now receive an adequate if
not exemplary science education--would find themselves subject to
inferior faith-based pseudoscientific instruction under the new
Republican plan for Texas public schools, this issue must be taken
up by Texas Citizens for Science. (Note added, Jan. 2005: TCS is still
working on this one!)
Please Donate to Texas Citizens for Science
|
Texas Citizens for Science requests donations from its members and
supporters to enable us to continue our work of promoting the use of accurate and reliable science
in Texas public education and state government, and opposing radical right-wing extremists
who wish to damage science textbooks and science curriculum standards in Texas.
We need to continue speaking to members of the Texas State Board of Education, the Texas
Legislature, and other state government agencies to preserve scientific integrity in Texas. We
have organized, determined, and aggressive opponents in Texas who want to damage and corrupt
science education in our state, so we need your help. Please donate to Texas Citizens for
Science by mailing a check to TCS or by clicking on the PayPal button below.
|
Texas Citizens for Science Announcement Email List
Texas Citizens for Science maintains an email list on Yahoo Groups
named TexNews to keep you informed about science education issues in Texas.
This is not a discussion list, but a one-way announcement and information
list. You will not receive messages from other list members, nor can you
send messages to the list. This is a relatively low volume list.
There are two ways you can subscribe to TexNews: You can send an email message
to texnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
You will then receive a message to confirm your subscription. This second
step is necessary to prevent others from signing you
up to lists without your knowledge. Or, you can visit the webpage
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/texnews/
and click the button "Join This Group!" Either way will work, but if you choose the latter, you will have
to obtain a Yahoo account and Yahoo ID.
Last updated: 2008 November 6
