If you hand the teaching of science over to the Texas Board of Education, what you get in the end is junk science. For several months now, the Texas Board of Education has been involved in deciding upon a final draft for the new science standards for the state of Texas. The final set of standards are adrift with amendments that some would say impinge on the integrity of science, and science teaching. Here in a board room a group of men and women far removed from the field of science, and from the very classrooms that they oversee paved the way for the conservative right influence on classroom teaching.

The National Center for Science Education issued a press release that said in part:

After three all-day meetings and a blizzard of amendments and counter-amendments, the Texas Board of Education cast its final vote Friday on state science standards. The results weren’t pretty.

The board majority amended the Earth and Space Sciences standards as well as the Biology standards (TEKS) with loopholes and language that make it even easier for creationists to attack science textbooks.

“The final vote was a triumph of ideology and politics over science,” says Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). “The board majority chose to satisfy creationist constituents and ignore the expertise of highly qualified Texas scientists and scientists across the country.” NCSE presented the board with a petition from 54 scientific and educational societies, urging the board to reject language that misrepresents or undermines the teaching of evolution, which the board likewise ignored.

The results in Texas will have a powerful effect on other states (Florida is next) that are contemplating changes in science education standards.