Despite Rick Perry’s strong win, I did not don sack cloth and ashes today. That’s because there were faint glimmers of hope in the results.
Fundamentalist Don McLeroy was kicked out of his seat on the State Board of Education. McLeroy is an ideologue of the bright stripe kind, whose fixations were allowed to become Texas public education policy. My friend Tincy Miller was also, unfortunately, kicked off the board, but her surprise replacement, teacher George Clayton, seems like a refreshing addition:
“As an educator, I see the question of curriculum and textbook content as a simple task; both should be agenda free”
The best news of all is that the worst member of them all,  Cynthia Dunbar, is off the board, to be replaced by either Marsha Farney or Brian Russell. Russell may not seem on first blush like much of an improvement, but so far he has not yet proven to be certifiably insane.
Kate Alexander in the Austin American-Statesman article linked to above calls this a loss for “conservatives.” How wrong. Those people aren’t “conservatives.” They’re fanatics. And good riddance to them.
