Why is a extremist fundamentalist from out of state deciding how history is taught in Texas?

The Texas State Board of Education will soon appoint a social studies curriculum “expert” panel. One of whom is an absurdly unqualified ideologue hostile to public education, who argues that laws and public policies should be based on his narrow interpretation of the Bible.
The appointee is Rev. Peter Marshall of Peter Marshall Ministries in Massachusetts, who suggests that California wildfires and Hurricane Katrina were divine punishments for tolerance of homosexuality. He sounds like an American version of the Taliban to me.

The Peter Marshall Ministries web site includes Marshall’s commentaries sharply attacking Muslims with remarks like “…allowed them to undermine our society by building mosques in our country… “, and “…there is an all-out spiritual war going on for the souls of mankind between Christianity and Islam”. Marshall has also attacked Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches. I don’t know about you but I don’t want someone who disrespects my religion making decisions about how my child is taught.

How is it that the members of the SBOE feel that Texas universities don’t have sufficiently credentialed scholars in the field who are more qualified than an out of state extremist?