The Score is Settled But Don't Look for Good Sports

The lesson this week could be a hugely ironic one.  Think back to little league and your team has just lost.  The coaches still make you line up and slap hands with your winning counterparts, all the while repeating "Good game" over and over.  It hurts, but it makes a good sport out of a little kid.

This week can be amounted to a game of t-ball.  The players here are members of the State Board of Education.  The teams are made of up the conservatives and the liberals.  15 members played hard ball with each other all week, finally ending up with a final score Friday to adopt new standards for 4.8 million kids in grades K-12 in a 9 to 5 vote.

Just don't expect each side to slap hands just yet.

The board's conservative bloc, which dominates the board, pushed forward with a vote despite many requests to delay until more research could be completed over the subject matter.  However, educators like mother-daughter team Linda and Monica Neely,  who sat in on the hearings this week, said this debate's been waging on for two years.  "It's not rushed," said Linda.  "What's rushed," she added, is the number of people speaking up at the last minute.

As reported by Dos Centavos, Arne Duncan, President Obama’s Secretary of Education, said, “Curricula should be written by educators who know the subject matter, know the standards and know what it takes to prepare our children for college and careers in the global economy.”

Instead, a board comprised of less than half of actual educators, adopted new standards for Texas elementary, middle and high school curricula.  Public reaction blamed controversial debate and so-called ignorance on the fact that the board simply did not know what it was voting on.

SBOE member Rick Agosto, D-San Antonio, expressed his outrage during the meeting, calling the board's behavior laughable and "embarrassing."  

"Take this power away from us," he said Friday.  "We're children playing in a shed full of knives.  I'm appalled by it."

The Changes

One standard largely adopted by the board's majority calls for high school students to learn about instances of institutional racism in American History.  Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, said not all Americans should be linked to discrimination.  Another example of the board's curriculum amendments, which is said to also affect children outside of Texas because of the pull the state has with textbook publishers, added Thomas Jefferson back into high school World History textbooks.  He had previously been stricken from the list of Enlightenment thinkers and replaced with John Calvin. 

"Within ten minutes, we go in there and we change the whole political philosophy in writings.  I don't know what's going on in here!" said Agosto.

But Terry Leo, R-Spring, knew exactly what was going on, assured that she and her conservative colleagues would get the votes needed to pass the guidelines.  “The buck stops at the board," said Leo.  "I would ask that you (opposing members) consider that we’ve added more minorities than ever before, and more events involving minorities.”

Political web site Mother Jones lists some of the other changes, and you can read them by clicking here. 

Bill White, the Democratic candidate for Texas Governor, said the vote is going to have consequences not only inside school houses, but everywhere else, too.  

"When people see Texas as a place with political agendas in schools, it hurts our ability to attract entrepreneurs and new businesses," he said.

No immediate response about the curriculum guidelines could be found of Governor Rick Perry.

Everyone's Got a Laptop and a Twitter Account

The day's vote also went viral with web heads posting comments to Facebook and Twitter.   "SBOE makes me so embarrassed!  How to explain to out-of-state freinds that we're not all f***ing idiots!" wroter Twitter user pambaggett.  MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann also chimed in.  "Texas SBoE has decided that the Amendments to the Constitution shall be referred to as 'Yada-yada-yada'. 

More than half the day on Friday was spent on finishing amendments for high school curriculum requirements.  The vote, which began in the late afternoon, started with high school.  It passed, as did the subsequent vote for K-8th grade curriculum revisions, each with a 9 to 5 vote, with one abstention (the absence of Republican Geraldine Miller).  The vote follows party lines.

However, ultra-conservative board member Don McLeroy will be leaving his SBOE seat after being narrowly defeated in the March Republican primary against Robert Thomas Ratliff, who is running against Jeff McGee, a Libertarian, for McLeroy's District 9 spot in November.

Conservatives want to sway the board back to the right after they say liberals controlled the board for too many years.  The preceding statement may be why many believe the board's decisions are over-politicized.

Cast Your Vote

District 10's Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, will not be returning either, as well as District 12's Geraldine Miller, a Republican, who, like McLeroy, did not win the March primary election.  Republican Ken Mercer in District 5 will face Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Democrat.  Bob Craig, R-Lubbock, will face John Pekowski, a Libertarian. 

On the Democratic side, Agosto decided to step down from the board in District 3.  District 1's Rene Nunez of El Paso, will be running for re-election against Republican Carlos Charlie Garza.  In District 4, Lawrence A. Allen, Jr., D-Houston, is running unopposed.

Regret or Determination?

Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat from Corpus Christi, who tried like might to get the board to recognize key Hispanic figures in history, and who is the longest-serving member of the board (since 1982), may have a different opinion of her position after this.   To the Texas Tribune, she said, “I’m sorry I’m a part of this board.  What we have done, a classroom teacher would throw in the trash.  As for Hispanic kids, I feel worse.  I feel like I’ve let you down, more than two million kids in Texas schools.  When they go to college, they’ll learn the real information for the first time.  If you look at this history, you might as well say Hispanics don’t exist.”

Borlanga hasn't announced any plans to step down.  She's served 28 years on a board that's undoubtedly been through many ups and downs.  Borlanga may just wait for a new day at the State Board of Education.  "Wait 10 minutes and it'll change," goes the old adage of Texas weather.   The only difference - it'll be 10 years before the board takes up new standards on curriculum changes.