# Texas Board of Education meeting -- Jesus Christ, why do we have to listen to these clowns?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 21, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275 "2010-05-21T16:49:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/1 "2010-05-21T16:49:52Z")
The Texas State Board of Education has been meeting this week to determine [standards for curricula](http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/may/21/board-behaving-badly/) (standards with have national implications since they affect textbooks for the entire country).
Read the article and weep for our children. This handful of immature, bullying, bigoted assholes has a ridiculous amount of power, and they’re pushing even more to turn textbooks into hardcopy editions of Conservapedia.
Along with trying to adopt stanards saying that Joe Mccarthy was right all along, to make slavery the third most important cause of the Civil War and to put Jefferson Davis on an equal footing with Abraham Lincoln (which prompted one Democratic member to tell conservatives they could "stick Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address where the sun don’t shine), they also tried to make a motion for requiring that Barack Obama’s middle name be added to the standards:
> [@](#):
>
> The “Hussein” amendment came after board conservatives rewriting the history standards had deemphasized slavery, questioned New Deal entitlements and mandated study of the “optimism” of “thankful” immigrants. Democrat Allen made a motion to add the name of Barack Obama to the standards. It seemed a minor copy edit: He merely wanted the president’s name in a standard that already mentioned the year of his election as a turning point and noted the “first black president.”
>
> Bradley sprang into action. “I’d like to make a motion to insert his middle name, Hussein,” he said. Asked why — it was the first time any discussion of any of official’s middle name had come up — Bradley played dumb. “He’s the president of the United States, and I think we should give him the honor and privilege of his full name.” He insisted the board had done the same for “John Fitzgerald Kennedy” and “Ronald Wilson Reagan.”
>
> Some other members were dumbfounded: The Arabic sounding name has been widely used as an epithet in conservative circles and is closely tied to the contention that Obama isn’t an American citizen. “I think it’s pretty obvious what you’re trying to do,” said Bob Craig, a moderate Republican from Lubbock. “And I don’t think it’s correct that we’ve used the middle names for other presidents.” (That was true, Lowe confirmed shortly later; the board follows whatever style a particular president prefers for his name.)
>
> Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi — who left the last meeting in a tantrum after not getting her way on dozens of votes — chided Bradley: “I’m getting pretty fed up with the behavior, and trying to be derogatory. … You’re grinning and making fun, and it’s really upsetting. … We’re talking about something serious: The first African-American president of the United States.”
>
> After pleas from other members to quash the amendment and spare the board further embarrassment, Bradley stood down, but he slapped at his colleagues. “Madam chair, I’ll put an end to the whining. I’ll withdraw the motion,” he said.
It’s the “grinning” that really gets to me. The asshole was trolling, and he knew he was trolling. It was pure partisan race baiting. These are people who do not take their jobs seriously, or even understand their jobs. They’re nothing but childish, simple-mided political hacks (and racist ones to boot), who don’t care about facts, don’t understand or respect education and have no business having so much pwoer.
You really have to read the whole article to get a sense of the kindergarten tone and obnoxiousness of these douche-nozzles.
How can anybody stand to live in that state?
---
### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/2 "2010-05-21T17:06:03Z")
Hopefully the smaller states will end up purchasing the textbooks written with the California or New York curricula in mind. I pity the poor children of Texas, though, having their educational standards decided by these bozos.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/3 "2010-05-21T17:15:01Z")
Any way to work out a trade with Mexico? Say, we give them Texas and they give us so many cases of tequila each year?
---
### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/4 "2010-05-21T17:16:21Z")
Say we just give 'em Texas and call it even.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/5 "2010-05-21T17:21:48Z")
If the tequila is too much, hows about a few serapes then? (tryin to save face)
---
### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/6 "2010-05-21T17:34:27Z")
> [@Kyla](#):
>
> Hopefully the smaller states will end up purchasing the textbooks written with the California or New York curricula in mind. I pity the poor children of Texas, though, having their educational standards decided by these bozos.
The problem is that the way those two states organize their textbook processes means that they don’t have as much clout as Texas in the whole procedure.
California can rival Texas in Grades K-8, because the state constitutes a large single market in those grades. But at the high school level, California does not have state-level textbook adoption; it leaves local school districts to decide what books to adopt.
New York is even less likely to form a single market, because it is a non-endorsing state at all levels, leaving local districts free to choose their own books. This doesn’t mean, of course, that New York (or California) has no standards. The schools are still meant to choose books with the state’s Learning Standards in mind. But because there are so many districts, and different people have different ideas about what textbooks should focus on, it’s harder for a publisher to produce a textbook that will appeal to all New York school districts.
With state-level adoption all the way from K through 12, Texas effectively constitutes the largest single market in the country, especially at the high school level. Schools in Texas _can_ choose to go with their own choice for textbooks, rather than use the state adoptions, but if they do, the state will not pay for their books. And how many school districts are going to throw money away like that?
The textbook manufacturers do their best to get on the Texas adoption list, because getting Texas means a huge chunk of guaranteed money. The biggest consequence of all this is not just textbooks that conform to Texas’ idea of history, but textbooks that leave out any controversial or potentially divisive issue. I’ve read hundreds of pages of testimony from Texas textbook adoption hearings, going back 40 years, and the kiss of death for any textbook hoping to be adopted is controversy. The more bland and uncontroversial you can make the book, the more likely you’ll slide through the adoptions process without raising anyone’s ire. It’s pretty depressing.
---
### Author:  [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/7 "2010-05-21T17:38:47Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> If the tequila is too much, hows about a few serapes then? (tryin to save face)
A rancid poncho?
---
### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/8 "2010-05-21T17:41:32Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> …How can anybody stand to live in that state?
Texas has its good points. And it helps if you’re a contributing member of the [Texas Freedom Network](http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer). Look on the bright side (from the OP’s link):
> [@](#):
>
> The final squabbling — which will extend into today’s meeting, starting at 9 a.m. — comes as the board faces serious questions over whether and when it will get the money from the Legislature to buy the actual books or digital materials being amended. Earlier in the week, the board agreed to shelve plans for science textbooks, based on the standards the board approved more than a year ago, because the Legislature, facing a budget crisis, simply does not have the money to buy them. Instead, the Texas Education Agency will ask lawmakers for money to purchase far cheaper supplementary materials, so students can prepare by 2012 for state tests based on the new standards…
>
> The potential delays continued to give hope to those who would like to see the conservatives’ rewrites scrapped or subjected to yet another edit. "I’ve never seen a standards process reopened, but there’s no rule against it,” said Dan Quinn, spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group that scolds and scrutinizes the state board for rightwing extremism. “If the purchase of the books gets pushed out longer, that widens your window of opportunity to fix the mess they’ve got right now.”
The extreme right wingers have been packing the Board for years, not just replacing Democrats with Republicans, but replacing Republicans with Right Wing Extremist/Young Earth Creationist/Confederate Apologist Republicans. Alas, too many people just don’t pay attention to our School Board elections. But we’ve begun to make a little progress. [Don McLeroy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_McLeroy), appointed Chair by our Governor Good Hair, lost his bid to be re-appointed. Then lost his bid for renomination–to another Republican who believes in Evolution.
He’s still there, but is a lame duck.
---
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/9 "2010-05-21T17:48:43Z")
> [@Enginerd](#):
>
> A rancid poncho?
Is that seriously what a serape is? My gf has a poncho sort of thing that she calls her serape (rolling the “r”). Forgive my ignorance; I am from Pennsylvania. The closest I come to Mexicans are the people working the counter at Taco Bell.😉
---
### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/10 "2010-05-21T17:49:35Z")
**mhendo** , thanks for the explanation. That’s incredibly depressing.
---
### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/11 "2010-05-21T17:53:20Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#):
>
> Texas has its good points. And it helps if you’re a contributing member of the [Texas Freedom Network](http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer). Look on the bright side (from the OP’s link):
>
> The extreme right wingers have been packing the Board for years, not just replacing Democrats with Republicans, but replacing Republicans with Right Wing Extremist/Young Earth Creationist/Confederate Apologist Republicans. Alas, too many people just don’t pay attention to our School Board elections. But we’ve begun to make a little progress. [Don McLeroy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_McLeroy), appointed Chair by our Governor Good Hair, lost his bid to be re-appointed. Then lost his bid for renomination–to another Republican who believes in Evolution.
>
> He’s still there, but is a lame duck.
Yeah, I don’t mean to sidetrack the conversation, but this happens ALL THE TIME in Kansas and probably other school boards across the country. We get a school board in place who starts trying to take away Evolution from the science books and replace it with intelligent design. Cue Kansas becoming the laughingstock of the nation.
Everyone gets up in arms and we kick those no good school board members out come next election.
And then everyone forgets about it come the next, next election, and those same (or similar) board members are back again and ID goes back on the agenda.
On again, off again, it’s been this way for at least 20 years.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/12 "2010-05-21T17:59:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Any way to work out a trade with Mexico? Say, we give them Texas and they give us so many cases of tequila each year?
I think it’d have to be something more like: We give them so many of cases of bourbon a year if they, as an act of charity, agree to take back Texas.
---
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/13 "2010-05-21T18:09:18Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#):
>
> I think it’d have to be something more like: We give them so many of cases of bourbon a year if they, as an act of charity, agree to take back Texas.
_sigh_ Fine. Get the paperwork in order. Make sure the brand of bourbon is specified.
---
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/14 "2010-05-21T18:13:12Z")
[QUOTE=kayaker]
Any way to work out a trade with Mexico? Say, we give them Texas and they give us so many cases of tequila each year?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=descamisado]
Say we just give 'em Texas and call it even.
[/QUOTE]
> [@Mr.Excellent](#):
>
> I think it’d have to be something more like: We give them so many of cases of bourbon a year if they, as an act of charity, agree to take back Texas.
And even that probably wouldn’t be enough. We’d have to throw in New Mexico and Colorado before they’d even take a look at our offer.
It’s stories like this that make me really miss Molly Ivins. She would’ve gotten at least a month’s worth of great columns out of this.
---
### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/15 "2010-05-21T18:55:34Z")
Got friends and cousins who are Texas lefties, and my admiration for them knows no bounds. Change is coming to Texas. Texas is the Saudi Arabia of America, money, power, and a fanatical brand of capitalist _wahabbism_ is burrowed deep into the fabric, and digging it out takes courage, tenacity, and a willful ignorance of the odds against. Happily, Texans specialize in those qualities. Change is coming, and the Pillars of Heaven will get a good hard shaking.
Molly is drinking bourbon with Mark Twain today, having a good laugh. Rest well, good and faithful servant. We _won’t_ rest, we promise.
---
### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/16 "2010-05-21T19:00:21Z")
> [@Enginerd](#):
>
> A rancid poncho?
We have to be careful; is it a Mexican poncho or a Sears poncho?
---
### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/17 "2010-05-21T19:14:35Z")
\[1\]([http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TKIIKpbiL.\_SL500\_AA300\_.jpg](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TKIIKpbiL._SL500_AA300_.jpg))
* * *
1. Poncho!!!
---
### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/18 "2010-05-21T19:20:16Z")
> [@NDP](#):
>
> And even that probably wouldn’t be enough. We’d have to throw in New Mexico and Colorado before they’d even take a look at our offer.
>
> It’s stories like this that make me really miss Molly Ivins. She would’ve gotten at least a month’s worth of great columns out of this.
Screw that. Let’s give them back Texas and Arizona. That would be hilarious.
---
### Author:  [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/19 "2010-05-21T19:50:33Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#):
>
> Screw that. Let’s give them back Texas and Arizona. That would be hilarious.
I’ll give my vote for this. But only if they have to take the people and not just the land. Then we can get serious about building the border wall.
---
### Author:  [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-board-of-education-meeting-jesus-christ-why-do-we-have-to-listen-to-these-clowns/540275/20 "2010-05-21T19:56:42Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Is that seriously what a serape is? My gf has a poncho sort of thing that she calls her serape (rolling the “r”). Forgive my ignorance; I am from Pennsylvania. The closest I come to Mexicans are the people working the counter at Taco Bell.😉
Sorry, **kayaker** - I didn’t mean to imply that your girlfriend has rancid clothing. It’s from a [Zappa song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s6fbnRQZZI). Fittingly, **Frank** got it.
Pancho and Lefty’s a great song, too.
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