According to the local press down there -
Cynthia Dunbar, a conservative State Board of Education member who came under fire last year for saying Texas’ schools undermine parents’ authority to teach children scriptural interpretations, is on a short list of candidates being considered by Gov. Rick Perry to lead the 15-member elected board.
Perry’s office Wednesday wouldn’t confirm or deny reports that Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond, is a candidate to replace former Chairman Don McLeroy of College Station. McLeroy, another conservative board member, recently lost the post when the Texas Senate refused to confirm his gubernatorial appointment.
Now, one could wonder why in the world such a person would be appointed to oversee the public schools in any state, even if that state is Texas. More background and examples of more bile from this charming individual after the jump.
[Update - According to commenter Weasel, since the Legislature is out of session, "the new appointment does NOT need to be approved until the next session (probably 2011, though there could be another special session)." Also, this trial balloon is probably "about testing the waters to see how many conservative votes the appointment would win him in the upcoming primary, versus how many reasonable Republicans would ditch him because of it."]
Apparently, the Governor's first choice for the chair got derailed because of that old "evolution" stuff -
The Senate rejected Republican Don McLeroy's nomination as chairman of the State Board of Education on Thursday after Democrats decried his lack of leadership and "endless culture wars" over evolution and other volatile topics.
Along strict party lines, the Senate voted 19-11 for McLeroy, but a two-thirds majority was required. One Democrat abstained from the vote.
Several Democrats cited the recurring divisiveness on the board with McLeroy at the helm, along with his resistance to the views of educators and education experts on curriculum and other matters.
GOP senators rejected the criticism and accused the Democrats of holding an "inquisition" against the College Station Republican for holding views shared by many Texans – including a Bible-based explanation for the origin of humans.
Hopefully, the Governor is just trying to put a scare into those who rejected his first choice, so that whoever he actually does nominate gets approved - because, this Ms. Dunbar is a real piece of work:
In a book published last year, Dunbar argued the country’s founding fathers created "an emphatically Christian government" and that government should be guided by a "biblical litmus test." She endorses a belief system that requires "any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern."
Also in the book, she calls public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion."
The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even "tyrannical," she wrote, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.
Ms. Dunbar is the type of public "education" official who relies on unscientific advocacy groups instead of actual scientists when formulating science standards. In hearings last year, when she kept referring to the "weaknesses" in evolutionary theory, she was asked for the basis of those claims. As she responded to one student at the hearing -
Dunbar: And there's lots of data. Do you know who Werner Arber is? He's a PhD and a Nobel laureate.
A: I believe I heard you talking about him earlier.
Dunbar: And do you know who he is.
A: Not extensively.
Dunbar: Go Google him. Because he spent his life on evolution and genetics. So there is data out there [on the weaknesses of evolution], we don't want that squelched. We want to be able to discuss it. And as a political science major, I would hope that you of all people would want there to be open discussion these types of issues within the classroom.
A: You keep talking about the scientific method. When these four weaknesses are applied to the scientific method and they fail– I don't understand –
Dunbar: His documentation, if you go read it, I mean it's very clear as to the geneticists and the documentation of the mutations and all that. I mean it's not anything that fails, it's testable, it's observable, it's right there. But those are the types of the things that we want the students to be able to discuss ...
On the site "Thoughts from Kansas" on ScienceBlogs, Josh Rosenau went looking for him, and discovered that the a Creationist magazine had published an article describing the Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist as a "Darwin skeptic". In a move reminiscent of Woody Allen in Annie Hall, responding to a blowhard professor by bringing Marshall McLuhan out from behind a movie sign to tell the professor that he knows nothing about his work, Mr. Rosenau contacted the Nobel Laureate, and received a letter that he was told he could freely share -
I recently got aware of an article entitled "Werner Arber: Nobel Laureate, Darwin Skeptic" that was published in September 2008 by the Institute for Creation Research and that is authored by Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. This article completely misinterprets my general conclusions that I base on several decades of studies in microbial genetics. A number of citations are taken out of their original context and surrounded by comments and misinterpretations by the author of the article.
As Alvy (Woody) says in Annie Hall, "Boy, if life were only like this"!
But wait, there's more! Last year, she published an essay prior to the Presidential election that, well, just look -
State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar isn't backing down from her claim that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is plotting with terrorists to attack the U.S.
The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group that monitors the board, released a public statement on Monday asking Dunbar to retract the statement.
"I don't have anything in there that would be retractable," said Dunbar, R-Richmond. "Those are my personal opinions and I don't think the language is questionable."
In a column posted on the Christian Worldview Network Web site, Dunbar wrote that a terrorist attack on America during the first six months of an Obama administration "will be a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is threat to tyranny."
She also suggests Obama would seek to expand his power by declaring martial law throughout the country.
That essay has been taken off line, but one blogger did preserve it in its entirety, before it "went down the memory hole, including this additional tid-bit:
If in fact Obama is not constitutionally eligible to be President, this is not something he can ever cure. His election, his swearing in and oath of office, his service of 3 days, 3 months, 3 years does not ever truly convey to him the authority of President of the United States. It is void at its inception and, as such, is open to a valid legal attack at any time.
So, ignorant, intolerant and dangerous talk, all from somebody who the Governor of Texas could put in charge of educating millions of students. Just a situation to keep an eye on.