According to data from U.S. News and World Reports, Texas ranks forty-one in education compared to other states. This dismal performance by the Lonestar state in education should be enough to propel Lawmakers to enact reforms to ensure the children of Texas do not start their adult lives at a disadvantage from other students across the nation, but unfortunately, Texas lawmakers plan to go in the opposite direction. Texas legislators recently introduced legislation which will make it easier for science teachers to teach creationism in class, or as the bill states teach ideas “that may cause controversy.”
Separation of church and state
Texas is not the only state to attack or try to blur the boundaries which separate church and state.
Other states such as Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Alabama, and South Dakota have also proposed laws which would give teachers cover to teach an unscientific theory based on Judeo-Christian beliefs to students under the auspices of teaching an alternative science theory.
It is bad enough Americans have to deal with President Trump’s constant diatribes on the so-called fake news, but now we must also deal with fake science being taught to our children in the very place where reason, logic, and scientific fact should trump (no pun intended) right wing politics. The broad scientific consensus on evolution and global warming is not theory or some liberal plot to poison the minds of children in red states with their secular propaganda but is fact, and facts do not care what your political persuasion is or what religion you follow.
Failure not acceptable
No matter what any politician says, the world is growing more interconnected, and the economies of nearly every country is dependent on workers and companies from so far off land. This is another one of those inconvenient facts which no matter how far you bury your head deep in the sand will eventually rear its ugly head.
So do states like Texas and Alabama really want to give other countries, and even other U.S. states, an advantage over their students in important fields such as science or math to promote their religious beliefs? The answer to that question will have far-reaching consequences for not just those states but our nation as a whole if lawmakers like the ones in Texas keep heading in the direction they are going.
