Readin', writin' and radicalism

The State Board of Education in Texas has rejected two high school environmental-science books for what was termed "factual errors." The 10 Republican board members carried the vote, with the five Democrat members favoring approval of the texts. Critics, as might be expected, are complaining about censorship. Texas is one of the largest purchasers of textbooks in the country, so it makes a big splash in the publishing world when books are rejected.

In hearings before the decision, a number of representatives of conservative groups spoke out against the books, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. One of the speakers noted that democracy, Christianity and industrialization were blamed in one book for an "environmental crisis" facing the world today. Peggy Venable of Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy called the two books "radical environmentalist workbooks."

A defender of the rejected volumes said the board caved in to "political pressure from a group of religious extremists with a blatantly antiscience agenda." One book did make it through the screening -- Global Science: Energy, Resources, Environment, which is published by Kendall Hunt Publishing Co. School districts are free to purchase the rejected books, but they would have to do so without state aid.

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