Texas' Public Education

I subscribe to "Texas Monthly", one of the few magazines that I read cover to cover. The new issue that arrived in the mail yesterday had an article "How Well Do You Know Your State Board of Education". It's set up as a quiz about the members of the Board of Education. The answers to the multiple choice questions are at the end of the article. The statements the board members have uttered and their beliefs make me wonder, is this the best that Texas can do?!! These are the people that decide what our little Texans are taught in school. Here is the article so you can be scared too

http://www.texasmonthly.com/2008-10-01/feature5-1.php

Here are some facts about Texas and its public education system.

• Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation and #46 in average math SAT scores. (From the Texas Comptroller's Office 2005 report "Texas Where We Stand")
  
• Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates (68%) (From the Texas Comptroller's Office 2005 "Texas Where We Stand")

Also, Texas' policy is to deny contraceptives without parental consent wherever possible and to push an abstinence-only sex education program in public schools. Since Texas has the highest teen birth rate in the nation (63 births per 1,000 females 15-19) according to the KIDS COUNT Data Book, a national state-by-state report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. (July 29, 2007) that program is really working out!

Don't get me wrong. I intend to be Katie's first source on sex education and the school as a back up. But many households leave it to the schools to teach and when you leave it to a Texas public school, you are getting a puritanical sex education.

Now my mind has wondered to another thought, we rely on our education system to teach our children a lot of what we as parents should be teaching at home. Why do so many parents demand that the schools teach their children ethics, manners, respect, religion, etc. That is our job as parents!