Dirty Dealings at the Texas State Board of Education

Texas SBOE member Rick Agosto is highlighted as the swing vote for hire on the board in a recent Washington Monthly article Money and Power on the Texas State Board of Education.

This article was a sidebar to an article on the ascent to power of Texas SBOE's ultraconservative bloc Revisionaries.

Both articles are worth reading and highlight out how not just Texas' education standards have been corrupted by Texas' ultraconservatives.

Fortunately, Mr. Agosto has decided not to run for re-election in 2010. Unfortunately, the damage he has helped the ultraconservative bloc do to Texas' education standards will not go away with him.

It's about time Texas did some housecleaning at the SBOE. Aside from Agosto, there are three seats on the Board currently held by ultraconservatives which will be contested in the 2010 re-election. Of the three, Cynthia Dunbar is not running for re-election, but has five contenders for her seat. She has endorsed another ultraconservative to replace her -- Brian Russell. The other two are Don McLeroy, who is being opposed by Thomas Ratliff, and Ken Mercer, who has five opponents.

The candidates for the SBOE seats up for election in 2010 are shown here.