The Texas Senate rejected Governor Rick “The Secessionist” Perry’s re-nomination of Don “The Dentist” McLeroy to chair the State Board of Education. McLeroy is a young-earth creationist whose views on the teaching of evolution have threatened to cripple the state’s biology curriculum. McLeroy will remain as a member of the BOE, but Perry will need to find a new nominee for the chair. (Rest assured Perry won’t find an actual science advocate; more likely he’ll put forward a McLeroy clone, or perhaps a closet creationist who’ll be harder to criticize.) But in the meantime, congratulations, Texas!
Please, no really, don’t congratulate us! As a retired Texas teacher, I cannot even begin to tell you how difficult it is to BE a science teacher in Texas. I wish there were a way to put hidden microphones in the teachers’ lounge, then folks could understand why it takes so long to un-indoctronate kids once they’re out of public or private schools in Texas (and I fear many other southern states as well).