Texas education has always been at the bottom of the national pool, the shallow yellowish end at that. As we have no income tax, and we squawk about property taxes more than anything other than the cost for a pallet of ammunition, funding education is arbitrary and unfair. But only arbitrary and unfair to lesser funny colored Texans so it doesn’t matter much.
To solve the problem Governor Perry appointed Don McLeroy as chairman of the The State Board of Education while the rest of Texas voted for social conservatives (evangelical fundamentalist Christians) to make up 8 of the 15 members. Last year they tried to get Intelligent Design going here but through some fluke of the law failed. Not for trying mind you, for they had the people of Texas with them, just not the constitution. God trumps the constitution. Oops, sorry I generalized and that’s not true, JESUS trumps the constitution.
So the board voted for a new educational process regarding teaching English. The new idea takes is back about 50 or 60 years to the time a teacher stood at the black board and droned out a steady diet of antecedents, articles, and what have you while the class nodded off. Instead of learning grammar through reading and writing and understanding content Texas is now going back to the root of mechanical memorization. Basics! There are two issues at play in all this.
First is going back in time to a "supposed" better system which is only verified by cliches such as "readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmatic!" (which are all spelled wrong of course) and not to forget the one about us all walking 19 miles to school in a snow storm dodging tornadoes. The board discarded without review studies submitted by 13,000 English Texas teachers and national studies that show what is being sold as new is just old poo. The teachers are mad as hell which of course doesn’t matter as long as we get back to those better days. Days were the sign above the water fountain said "White Only" and didn’t have to include a "Solo Blanco" below it.
The second issue is the clincher though. It’s about English Only! A way around and underneath and sideways to try and hurt those who are not considered white protestant true Texans. English standards head back to basics