A number of people are so frustrated with public education that they advocate home schooling as a solution to the kind of problems we have in Texas and around the nation. One of the most infamous members of the Texas SBOE, Cynthia Dunbar, home-schooled her children, and she calls public education a tool of "perversion."
Ms. Dunbar will be retiring from the board at the end of the year, but her opinions will live on. She represents a powerful faction, and just because she will be out of sight, her views should not be out of our minds. Public education is in trouble, but what can we do about it?
While the Texas State Board of Education has served as a model for what can go wrong, public education is still our best hope to maintain a viable democracy. Meanwhile, we need to remain aware of what is happening in home schooling as well.
In a letter to The Nation, I referenced Mr. Josiah Ingalls, who also ran in the primaries for Texas District 5 and whose parents "home-schooled" him by sticking him in front of a television set.
Perhaps more disturbing is the kind of home-schooling some students will receive from their zealously fundamentalist parents, including their use of the old McGuffey reader. Take a look at this text, which refers to American Indians as "savages" and blames Jews for killing Christ. I have no doubt that certain members of the board would like for Texas public school books to resemble the McGuffey reader in its insistence on such values. I recommend that people visit some of the blogs representing these views for an eye-opening education.
We must look closely at the curriculum, books, and learning experience of all students. In recent years, I have become more and more alarmed at the lack of preparation I see in students entering first-year classes at Texas State University. Over the last decade, high schools have spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for and administering a relentless regime of tests mandated by the state. These tests change every few years, so they have no longitudinal value, and they are not nationally normed, so Texas schools get no insight on how they stand in relation to the rest of the nation. Some people make a lot of money creating worksheets and exams. Meanwhile, most students receive little systematic preparation in critical or creative thinking.
To remedy this situation, we must have new leadership to steer us toward solutions to the real problems in Texas: an unacceptable dropout rate, uninformed decisions on curriculum and texts, teaching to the test instead of content, and lack of support for teachers and the communities they serve. Texas State Board of Education needs two or three more sane people to win in November to repair the damage of the last decade.
The November election is of vital importance to Texas and the rest of the nation. Although Texas textbooks may not be adopted wholesale throughout the country anymore, their influence is still huge. As numerous commentators have observed, what happens in Texas does not stay in Texas. The problems facing public education in Texas and nationwide may prompt some to want to toss out our current school system, but consider the alternative to public schools: Do we really want a generation of new leaders schooled with the McGuffey Reader?
Rebecca Bell-Metereau
Professor of English and Film
Texas State University
Candidate, Texas State Board of Education, District 5