Barbara Cargill, State Board of Education. (credit: Caleb Bryant Miller/The Texas Tribune)
AUSTIN (AP) – The Texas State Board of Education is meeting this week for the first time under its conservative new chairwoman appointed by Governor Rick Perry.
Barbara Cargill’s tenure is already off to a rocky start with some of her fellow Republicans after her recent public comments that the board has only six “true” conservative Christians.
Republican board member Thomas Ratliff says Cargill’s comments are a bad start to her tenure..
And Thursday’s public hearing over supplemental science materials is likely to rekindle the debate over teaching evolution in public schools.
An intense fight over evolution and intelligent design theory in science curriculum put a national spotlight on the 15-member elected board in 2009. That’s when the board adopted current standards that encourage public schools to scrutinize “all sides” of scientific theory.
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