Good afternoon. My name is Steven Schafersman, President of Texas Citizens for Science, a statewide, grassroots organization dedicated to maintaining the professionalism of science education in Texas and scientific integrity of public school textbooks and curriculum. I am also a professional scientist and science educator and writer, specializing in biology, geology, and paleontology.

Here are some recent Texas newspaper headlines: "While SAT Scores Rise in U.S., Texas Still Near Bottom," "Texas' SAT Scores Below National Average," "Definition of Texas Dropouts Leads to Rate Discrepancies," "Textbook Fund at Issue in Vote," which mentions that the Texas Permanent School Fund has lost $6 billion in four years, about a quarter of its value.

What's the point of this, you ask? Every six to eight years, since 1982, I must travel to Austin to protect biology books from being censored and damaged by creationists of two types: those who testify and try to manipulate the system using specious arguments and marketing tactics, and those individual State Board of Education members who place a higher priority on debilitating the evolution content in biology textbooks rather than doing their job to ensure that our children actually receive a good education and have access to modern textbooks that the state can afford to buy. This inattention to serious concerns is an example of fiddling while Texas education burns.

In July, two members of the Board publicly threatened to place biology books whose publishers refuse to make scientifically inaccurate changes on the non-conforming textbook list, thereby making them less purchasable. This is a very dangerous game you are playing, because you are risking the quality of our children's vital science education, and because the public financial intimidation of publishers can have serious consequences. As I said two months ago, "The eyes of Texas are upon you; you cannot get away . . . with it."

The biology textbooks being considered for adoption have been vetted by your own TEA science staff, your own science textbook review panel to ensure compliance with the TEKS, you own contractor to check for factual errors, and by dozens of scientists and science educators who testified on their behalf in July. You would be wise and responsible to listen to these experts, especially the scientists, to judge the scientific content of the biology texts rather than to individuals who are notorious for promoting unscientific and supernatural explanations of natural processes and events.

In my written testimony, which I am sure you have all studied, I explained in great detail why the so-called "weaknesses" have no place in the biology books: (1) the "weaknesses" identified by the Discovery Institute are bogus; (2) true weaknesses of Darwin's original theory--the missing knowledge of genetics--are discussed by all the books, as are competing hypotheses of the origin of life; and (3) legitimate problems or controversies of evolutionary theory are too advanced to study in high school, and high school texts therefore contain reliable knowledge accepted by all biologists, rather than disputed details.

The Discovery Institute Fellows and representatives are not scientists, but rather pseudoscientists, as I demonstrated in my written testimony. They have no scientific credibility whatsoever. They claim to want evolution taught in our schools, but their claim is not sincere, since they promote intelligent design creationism exclusively, not evolution. The Discovery Institute representatives travel from state to state, using political and marketing techniques to convince state boards of education to modify their science curriculum in ways favorable to creationism and unfavorable to evolution. They did this in Kansas and Ohio, and ultimately their goal to diminish science education was rejected by both states. Now they are here in Texas, in this very room. You know what to do.

In conclusion, please don't give in to creationist pressure and censor the biology textbooks&emdash;don't try to force the publishers to make scientifically inaccurate changes by inserting bogus "weaknesses." Adopt the books unchanged, or with the advice of legitimate scientists and science educators if changes are necessary. You really have more important concerns than censoring science textbooks.