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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Texas School Board Set to Vote on Challenge to Evolution
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| Parent(s) |
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Mar 24, 2009 03:45pm |
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| Category | Proposed Legislation |
| Media | Newspaper - Wall Street Journal |
| News Date | Monday, March 23, 2009 09:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.
The proposed curriculum change would prompt teachers to raise doubts that all life on Earth is descended from common ancestry. Texas is such a huge textbook market that many publishers write to the state's standards, then market those books nationwide.
The Texas school board will vote after taking public testimony in a three-day meeting that starts Wednesday. Dr. McLeroy leads a group of seven social conservatives on the 15-member board. They are opposed by a bipartisan group of seven, often joined by an eighth board member considered a swing vote, that support teaching evolution without caveats.
Neither side is confident of victory. All members of the board have come under enormous pressure in recent months, especially three Republicans who support teaching evolution without references to "weaknesses." The state Republican Party passed a resolution urging the three to back Dr. McLeroy's preferred curriculum. A conservative activist group put out a news release suggesting all three were in the pocket of "militant Darwinists." |
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