During the 82nd session of the Texas Legislature the culture wars were evident in battles over reproductive rights and immigrant rights, but the heart of the culture wars in Texas lies in a representative body a tenth the size of the Texas House of Representatives. The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) has been the center of debates about evolution and creationism, institutional racism, and American exceptionalism. The debates that take place in the SBOE have even been about who should be the board’s chair, and that debate has spilled over into the Texas Legislature.
The chair of the SBOE is appointed by the Texas Governor and must be approved by the Texas State Senate. However, Republican Governor Rick Perry has been unable to get his nominees for chair approved by the State Senate, and his last two appointments went unapproved by the legislative body. Former board member Don McLeroy, Republican from District 9, was appointed by Perry in 2007, and did not receive enough votes in the Senate to be confirmed. McLeroy’s term as chairman was so controversial that during the 2008 Republican primary he was challenged and defeated by less than a percentage point by a moderate Republican Thomas Ratliff. Gail Lowe, Republican from District 14, was appointed by Perry last year, but her confirmation never came to a vote in the senate due to lack of support.
The American Independent reported that this month Perry appointed former science teacher Barbara Cargill, a Republican from District 8 who will not face State Senate confirmation until 2013.
According to reporting by the Texas Tribune, Cargill has voted consistently with the social conservative bloc of board members, and has been an outspoken on many of the social issues debated on the board.
The San Antonio Express reported that Cargill made a statement that she expects to “facilitate the meetings with a lot of character and a listening ear” and went on to say that she hopes to a “great job in leading the board as we focus on students and education.” In two weeks she will chair her fist meeting of the board as the board decides on supplemental science materials. Since the Texas legislature neglected to appropriate funds for new textbooks, the board will be choosing online materials including those discussing evolution.
When the Legislature is gaveled back into session for the 83rd time in 2013, the SBOE will be considering new curriculum standards for health education, including controversial sex education standards.
According to Texas Tribune reporting, Cargill successfully pushed for the elimination of “sex and gender and social constructs” from sociology curriculum, because she said that it would allow “students to go into the world of transvestites, transsexuals and God-knows-what-else.” Cargill’s is no stranger to promoting far right positions on culture war issues. She proposed deleting from the sociology standards a phrase mandating study of “institutional racism,” because another standard already mentioned “treatment” of minorities.
The Texas Tribune also reported that Cargill supported McLeroy’s efforts to remove a requirement that students explore the history of minority groups, saying it took away from teaching them about the American “melting pot.”
Cargill has also sought to ensure that social conservative so-called experts would testify during board hearings on standards. She appointed the late Christian minister Reverend Peter Marshall to the social studies review panel. The radical mister
wrote a series of commentaries in which he wrote about the dangers of Islam characterizing it as “a demonic and perverse caricature of Judaism and Christianity.” Marshall also claimed that “Good Muslims” could not be also be “good Americans,” because Islam is “completely incompatible with either Christianity or patriotic Americanism.”
The San Antonio Express also reports that Cargill emailed Rhonda Williams, an education coordinator at Stephen F. Austin State University who appointed to one of the social studies review committees, and asked her if she considered herself a “conservative when it comes to patriotism, the constitution, the heritage of our forefathers.”
The American Independent reports on how Cargill and former board member Cynthia Dunbar invited testimony proposing the board adopt a resolution against ‘pro-Islam, anti-Christian-bias’ in school history books, a measure that Cargill helped pass.
The chair of the State Board of Education has tremendous power, as the chair approves or denies any agenda items. This chair is trusted to ensure speakers with varying viewpoints have a chance to address the board; the chair is also in charge of determining which speakers will be heard from given limited time, even those who didn’t initially register.
Speaking to the Texas Eagle Forum event in Conroe this week after being nominated as chair, Cargill made clear what kind of chair she would be saying that “Right now there are six true conservative Christians on the board.” Governor Rick Perry has continued the culture wars at ever turn by nominating radical right wing social conservatives to the State Board of Education. Our children’s education should not be political, but the social conservatives on the SBOE have politicized education at every turn.
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