In response to the Texas Insider blog post

This commentary is in response to an article on Texas Insider blog found here. Ms. Driver does a good job of supplying the reader with lots of information, but some links as to where the information came from would be nice. She gave lots of information on the recent Texas State Board of Education’s recent March meetings where a lot of controversy followed.

One suggestion I would give is not to cite Wikipedia as a source. Who knows who actually put the information on that is posted on that site. Ms. Driver also states that because Texas is the second biggest state, we are second largest consumer of textbooks and that has an influence on the rest of the country. While part of that statement is correct, the biggest reason Texas has much influence on the rest of the country’s textbooks is because we are the second biggest producer of textbooks.

Overall, I think Ms. Driver done a good job. She explained her points well. Her final paragraph is great. She encourages everyone to get out and state their opinions, even if they aren’t popular. She states that it isn’t just a one-sided problem either and what might happen if some of this type of behavior doesn’t cease. She ends with an absolute gem of a quote by Mark Twain.

On a side note, it took the TSBOE 17 days to answer an email of when the minutes from the meeting discussed in this article would be available. The answer I got is they will be available on May 21, 2010 after they are approved by the board. This leaves me shaking my head and asking myself “what?”