Tx Board of Education:The Coming Conflagration

The opening salvos of the 2010 election campaign were being fired loud and clear in yesterday's State Board of Education meeting, especially when Social Studies came up late--I had to leave before they started, and will review the public testimony later and add commentary to this space this weekend. But all the usual conservative suspects were there, from Texans for Prosperity to the Free Market Foundation to the Texas Eagle Forum, so it's not too hard to imagine what they had to say...

They were there to comment about whether the social studies curriculum needs more Hispanics, whether the curriculum is subtly America-bashing or not, and so on. But actually, this is about "showing the flag," whether on the conservative side or the liberal side.

For the first time EVER, it is expected that several of the Board elections will be VERY competitive. It is not certain that the incumbents will be re-elected, as they face strong, well-organized challengers, who have been fund-raising for months (even though the filing deadline to run is several weeks away).

Both sides are using this debate to generate campaign contributions from their respective bases. Given some less-than-interesting choices higher in the ticket (i.e. Governor's race, etc.), it is entirely possible that these races will be the most interesting and talked-about in the next election cycle. (No, really.)