Get to know your State Board of Education

From Texas Monthly:

The folks who decide what Texas schoolchildren will learn are the fifteen members of the State Board of Education. Don't worry if you can't name a single one. Almost nobody can! Members of this obscure panel are elected in down-ballot races that generate about as much media attention as an appointment to the Funeral Service Commission, but they are the ones who determine the classroom content for every public- or charter-school student in Texas. The board, currently composed of ten Republicans and five Democrats, oversees the process that establishes curriculum standards--known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills--and adopts or rejects textbooks. Members serve four-year terms and receive no financial compensation. (You heard right: They do this for free.) So how well do you know the powerful volunteers who control your children's education? Take this quiz and see.

The quiz is alternately funny and appalling, more so if this is stuff you haven't heard of before. When you're done, go check out Laura Ewing, who will be the sort of board that won't figure prominently in a quiz like this, which is to say, she's competent, qualified, and perfectly sane. I did an interview with Ewing, which you can listen to here. Let's get a member on the Board that we've heard of for good reasons.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on September 20, 2008 to Election 2008