Texas A Model of Scientific Regressivism

If you don't vote for progressives, you get regressives. Take the state of Texas, where regressive politicians have been elected in especially high proportions. The regressives in office ousted Christine Castillo, the Texas Education Agency Director of Science. Why? Because she forwarded an e-mail to others which contained references to an upcoming speech noting the importance of evolution education. Lizette Reynolds, a former Bush appointee to the U.S. Department of Education, got the fire-Castillo ball rolling with a blistering notice to Castillo's superiors:

This is highly inappropriate. I believe this is an offense that calls for termination or, at the very least, reassignment of responsibilities. This is something that the State Board, the Governor’s Office and members of the Legislature would be extremely upset to see because it assumes this is a subject that the agency supports.

The TEA's consequent memo regarding the Castillo affair wrote that by forwarding the e-mail announcement of a speech on evolution education, Castillo "implies that TEA endorses the speaker's position on a subject on which the agency must remain neutral." Well, why wouldn't the Texas Education Agency support education on the subject of evolution? And why would the Director of Science for the TEA be neutral about the existence of evolution? Evolution is science so thoroughly settled that it has spawned multiple departments at Texas state universities, not to mention dozens of chemical, agricultural and medical industries employing Texans. The answer is that despite the settled state of evolution in the scientific, professional and industrial communities, evolution is not a settled matter in Texas state politics, where backward-looking, fact-ignoring regressives are in charge. And whose fault is that? Well, who voted these people into office? If you want a realistic approach to science education, you (Sources: Austin American-Statesman November 29 2007; New York Times December 3 2007)

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