Election More Than Federal Races

I’m fairly sure that most if not all of the news, noise, and campaign material you’ve probably seen has been for federal candidates Joe Biden, MJ Hegar, and Vicente González. There are 11 other races that also matter quite a bit and some of them matter in ways not everyone recognizes.

Even some Texans don’t realize that the Texas Railroad Commission doesn’t regulate railroads, it regulates the oil and gas industry and this election we have an opportunity to elect a highly qualified individual who recognizes that global climate change is an existential threat to the existence of our way of life. Her opponent operates oilfield waste disposal businesses and stands to make more money by keeping oil and gas industry regulation to a minimum. If you drive through west Texas at night you’ll seen dozens if not hundreds of fires roaring into the sky as oil wells flare off natural gas that they don’t want to bother with capturing and instead is allowed to be wasted on top of contaminating the environment with the CO2 and other damaging gases. Because the Railroad Commission rules state that all three commissioners have to agree to a permit to flare at a well if Chrysta Castañeda were elected she would have the power to stop the wasteful and environment damaging flaring.

The State Board of Education (SBOE) is another state agency with a role that many don’t know or understand. The SBOE has two main functions, oversee the investment of money from the proceeds from the sale and the mineral-related rental of many public lands in Texas which in turn funds textbooks for every public school student in the state and setting curriculum standards then reviewing and adopting instructional materials. Our representative on that board is up for election this year and the incumbent isn’t running. This is a golden opportunity to elect respected teacher and former Fulbright Scholar, Rebecca Bell-Metereau. I first met her about a decade ago and know her to be conscientious and deeply committed to raising the quality of education in our state. She will work to reduce the load of standardized tests our students are put through so that teachers aren’t force to teach to the test. Bell-Metereau has two daughters who graduated from Texas public schools and understands the limitations forced on both students and teachers by Texas’ many make or break tests.

If you’re among those who have requested a mail-in ballot I urge you to fill it out and mail it as soon as possible to avoid any chance that it will be delayed by the disruption of mail service caused by the recently appointed Postmaster General’s edicts eliminating overtime and shutdown of mail sorting equipment at many facilities. If your ballot doesn’t reach the elections office by Wednesday November 4 it will not be counted. In person early voting started yesterday so take advantage of the extra week and get it done early when crowds are light to help protect yourself from potential infection. The longer you wait the heavier the crowds are likely to be and the longer you’ll be stuck with a bunch of other people. This election is ours to lose and the way to do that is to not show up to make your voice heard. There are 14 Democratic candidates on the ballot in Guadalupe County, since we can no longer vote straight ticket be sure to mark all 14 of our candidates on your ballot.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 14, 2020

Textbook Peddling Nonsense

"Mexican American Heritage," is the first textbook on Mexican Americans ever included in a list of pre-approved instructional materials for Texas public schools. The authors must have been fans of Donald Trump before it was cool because they attribute poverty, drugs, crime, non-assimilation, and exploitation to Mexican Americans and link the ethnic group to illegal immigration. Apparently the history books’ authors don’t understand enough history to realize that many Mexican American families can trace their roots in Texas to a time when it was part of Mexico. In case I’m not being the clear, the border moved not the people.

In another part of the book they claim “Studies have shown that the Mexican American community suffers from a significant gap in education levels, employment, wages, housing, and other issues relating to poverty that persist through the second, third, and fourth generations". These are the same insults used against every other ethnic group that has ever set foot on this continent since the 1700s. Irish Catholics, Italians and Poles are just a few of the groups who have suffered such ethnic slurs over the last 300 or so years.

As it turns out the publisher of this travesty of a textbook is owned in part by Republican activist and former State Board of Education (SBOE) member Cynthia Dunbar. This is the same woman who questioned whether public education was even constitutional. Apparently she shares Donald Trump’s aversion to reading our founding documents since the Texas Constitution states: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

There are numerous like minded members of the SBOE still in office, one of them represents our district. Ken Mercer has supported textbooks and curricula that even other conservative groups like the Fordham Institute consider bad. Here’s what they had to say “Indeed, both in public hearings and press interviews, the leaders of the State Board of Education made no secret of their evangelical Christian-right agenda, promising to inculcate biblical principles, patriotic values, and American exceptionalism. And politics do figure heavily in the resulting TEKS. . . . Complex historical issues are obscured with blatant politicizing throughout the document. Biblical influences on America’s founding are exaggerated, if not invented. The complicated but undeniable history of separation between church and state is flatly dismissed.”

Mercer also claims that evolution is a hoax. Even the conservative Catholic Church has accepted the science of evolution since the 1950s and Pope Francis has reiterated that position recently. I spent 12 years in Catholic schools and well remember the high school biology lessons including evolution.

Now here’s the good part, you have an opportunity this November to retire Ken Mercer by voting for Rebecca Bell-Metereau. She’s a professor at Texas State University in San Marcos, her daughters went to public schools here in Texas. Bell-Metereau knows education and what we can do to make it better for all Texas children. If you don’t have a single other reason to vote in November improving the education of the next generation of Texans by replacing a reactionary with a professional educator should be more than enough.

Ken Mercer would destroy our religious freedom in the name of Christianity

Ken Mercer and the other extremist members of the State Board of Education claim that the United States was established as a Christian nation and seek to bring down the wall of separation between church and state. This extremist cabal seems to have forgotten their history lessons regarding one of the primary reasons that many European colonists came to America. We all learned that the Pilgrims came here seeking to escape religious persecution.

The Founding Fathers were not so far removed from the European religious wars between Catholics and Protestant sects all over Europe that they could fail to understand the value of separating religion and the state. In the years 1553 to 1660 there was religiously inspired violence or war between Christian sects somewhere in Europe each year almost without exception.

Mary I, Queen of England (1553-1558), restored Catholicism and in the process had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions.

In France between 1562 and 1598, there were eight civil wars and other outbreaks of violence that were clearly motivated by religious differences.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), began in Bohemia when Ferdinand II became the king in 1617 over Protestant fears he would recatholicize it.

The English Civil War (1640-1660) involved various Protestant denominations and Catholics and included the beheading of Charles I in 1649.

Ken Mercer doesn’t understand that separation of Church and State protects his freedom of religion and our children’s, but our founders did.

Radicals on State Board of Education seek to undermine religious freedom

At the last meeting of the State Board of Education the members proposed and discussed various aspects of the proposed curriculum developed by the volunteer teachers and subject matter experts. Board member Mavis Knight offered the following amendment: “examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others.” Knight pointed out that students should understand that the Founders believed religious freedom was so important that they insisted on separation of church and state.

Board member Cynthia Dunbar argued that the Founders didn’t intend for separation of church and state in America and claimed instead that the Founders intended to promote religion. She called the amendment “not historically accurate.”

Almost all constitutional scholars agree that separation of religion and state is clearly expressed in Article VI paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution which states: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Ken Mercer voted with the rest of the historical revisionists to defeat the amendment. If you value your right to practice your religion and teach your children that religion Rebecca Bell-Metereau must be elected to the State Board of Education.

Mercer debate claims don't pass the smell test

State Board of Education District 5 incumbent Ken Mercer is running for re-election. In the Republican Primary debate held last week Mr. Mercer repeatedly claimed that students are not allowed to raise their hands and ask questions in science class. His opponent Mr. Tuggey suggested that, if that’s really happening then it’s a local issue which should be handled by the administration in that district, not micro-managed by the heavy hand of the SBOE. That’s a great way to look at the purported problem, but what Mr. Tuggey failed to note is that many of Mr. Mercer’s claims are ginned up to provide red meat to his most rabid supporters and I’m betting this one is too.

Ken Mercer also claimed that while the curriculum writing teams are required by law to involve participation of teachers, parents and business people; only teachers were involved. For this to be true none of the 102 team members must have any children, I find that highly improbable.

Mr. Mercer claims that conservative historians in classrooms were shut out of the process. Given that Republicans hold a 2 to 1 advantage on the board and appointed 67 of the 102 team members that is an absurd assertion. Can he seriously believe that not a single conservative was named to the teams with kind of majority? But wait, if he’s so concerned about the lack of conservatives, parents and business people why didn’t he bother to nominate even a single person to the teams?

Ken Mercer and the State Board of Education do more harm than good on teen pregancy

Recently KXAN in Austin hosted a candidate forum for various primary races including State Board of Education District 5. Incumbent Ken Mercer claimed that parents in his district don’t want their children to be taught about contraception only the consequences of sexual activity. Mr. Mercer has not been listening to his constituents because according to polls done in the last year parents across Texas want medically accurate sex education that includes contraception by an overwhelming majority. In fact polls have shown that up to 90% of Texans want abstinence-plus information about contraception and disease prevention included in sexuality education, but 96% of Texas schools don’t provide that information.

Not only are schools not teaching what parents want but 41% of Texas school districts teach factually incorrect information in their sex education programs. Actual materials used in Texas classrooms claim that HIV is spread through tears, sweat and saliva. Ask your doctor, they’ll tell you that’s just not true.

In 2000 Texas and California had very similar teen birth rates ranking 46 and 44 among the states respectively. About the same time Texas went with abstinence only until marriage sex education curriculum and California chose abstinence plus. Just 5 years later Texas had a more than 50% higher teen birth rate put Texas at 50th place while California is now in 27th. Current Texas policy is just not working and Mr. Mercer is one of the reasons it isn’t.