At a Texas State Board of Education meeting last month, the Republican head of the school board defended the qualifications of a biology textbook review panelist who said that “creation science based on biblical principles should be incorporated into every biology book that is up for adoption.”
SBOE chair Barbara Cargill defended the panelist, who is not a biologist but… a dietitian. Cargill defended another Creationism advocate on the panel, a businessman, because he has a degree in chemical engineering, saying that not enough biology teachers wanted to serve on the panel reviewing textbooks.
Which, it seems, is a bold-faced lie:
They might be well-qualified in their own professional fields, but they are no more qualified to review biology textbooks than a biologist would be qualified to review a mathematics or engineering textbook,” Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network points out.
He also notes that Cargill’s claim that teachers didn’t step up to serve on the panels is baloney, as 140 of the 183 of the “individuals who applied or were nominated by State Board of Education members to serve as biology textbook reviewers” were educators, and the “vast majority of them have degrees and teaching experience specifically in biology."
At least part of this bad joke is documented on video below:
On the other hand, educators specializing in biology (or - even worse - an actual biologist working in the field) might have good reason to stay away from working with the Texas SBoE since they've shown nothing resembling intellectual honesty in matters like this. It might be necessary to refute this ongoing nonsense, but it's hardly rewarding - unless you're really fond of filling up airsickness bags day after day, that is.
- See more at:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/texas-school-board-chair-hails-creationist-dietitian-and-businessman-biology-experts#sthash.rDpRPGVD.dpuf
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