Texas students have the odds stacked against them

Don McLeroy is a Republican dentist from Bryan, Texas who was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to be the chairman of the Texas State Board of Education.  The Board is responsible to provide leadership and establish Texas shool system policies.

Via Chimpanzee Refuge, here's a couple of Mr. McLeroy's ideas on education:

  -  Evolution is "only a hypothesis, and a shaky one at that," such that "common descent has not been conclusively demonstrated to be true and therefore can not be described as 'factual' in our textbooks."
  -  "Medieval Christendom" is "a gift to the world"; it is imperative that "the gradual assimilation of Judeo-Christianity in the West" take place.
  -  Environmentalism, broadly speaking, is a crock of poo-poo.

And from Wikipedia:

According to Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, since his election, McLeroy has dragged the Texas State Board of Education into a series of "divisive and unnecessary culture-war battles":

He voted in 2001 to reject the only advanced placement environmental science textbook proposed for Texas high schools even though panels of experts – including one panel from Texas A&M – found the textbook free of errors. Baylor University in Waco used the same textbook.

In 2003 McLeroy led efforts by proponents of creationism and intelligent design to de-emphasize discussion of evolution in proposed new biology textbooks. He was one of only four board members who voted against biology textbooks that year that included a full account of evolution.

In 2004, McLeroy voted to approve health textbooks that stress "abstinence-only" in regard to instruction about pregnancy and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

According to a 2008 article in The New York Times, "Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion. 'I believe a lot of incredible things,' he said, 'The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.'”.

There's a place for that belief.  But it's not the chairmanship of the Texas State Board of Education, where Mr. McLeroy apparently considers it his responsibllity to make sure all Texas children believe as he does.  Don McLeroy places a whole generation of Texas kids at an educational disadvantage upon graduating and either going out into the world or applying for colleges and universities across the U.S.  

Perhaps he should pray for their success.  They're gonna need it.

(h/t Pharyngula)