What is Texas Citizens for Science?
Texas Citizens for Science is a statewide, grassroots organization dedicated to maintaining the
professionalism of science education in Texas public schools, the integrity of science in the
Texas public school curriculum, and the accuracy of science in Texas government agencies and
institutions. Our members include both working scientists and citizens
interested in preserving the quality of science education in Texas. We model ourselves after the
successful Kansas Citizens for Science
and Ohio Citizens for Science, and organized
for the same reason they did: to oppose the organized forces of unreason in our state that wish to
degrade the quality of science education in our schools and ignore the use of accurate science in state
government agencies.
Our activities include the following:
- Ensuring that the scientific integrity of science textbooks used in Texas
schools and the Texas science curriculum in TEKS are not compromised by keeping
them free of political, ideological, and religious influence.
- Preserving the state law that prevents the State Board of Education from censoring
science textbooks--as it has in past decades, by forcing publishers to make changes in their
science textbooks that modify or remove scientifically-accurate information in order to make
the content palatable with some State Board members' ideological biases and prejudices--by
allowing only changes that ensure that science textbooks are "free from factual errors."
- Working to prevent some SBOE members from using even this small power to compel publishers
to modify science textbooks in the guise of "editing" scientifically-valid content to make them
"free of factual errors" that are not really scientific errors, but are only "factual errors"
in the minds of ideologically-motivated State Board members.
- Participating in SBOE textbook hearings to ensure that creationists don't succeed in removing
scientifically-accurate information or including scientifically-false topics in science
textbooks by claiming that the changes would better enable students to "analyze, review, and
critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths
and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information" as required by TEKS.
- Keeping pseudoscientific concepts such as creationism and intelligent design out of
the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS--the Texas school science curriculum), and
out of science textbooks used in our state's public schools.
- Ensuring that Texas government agencies, committees, and institutions always use
accurate science and scientific reasoning in their deliberations and to reach conclusions
that affect the lives and welfare of Texas citizens.
Last updated: 2004/07/25
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