Dallas Morning News Should Revise Flawed Editorial on SBOE & Social Studies
The Dallas Morning News needs to be fact-checked on the left-slanted editorial they published this week. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-sboe_13edi.State.Edition1.60e7ba.html So we, have initiated such a task. The DMN wants the social studies standards revised, but it’s their own flawed article that actually needs to be revised. Tip to the DMN, if you are going to post an SBOE member’s cell phone, you better have your facts straight in your article.
1. Marsha Farney campaigned as a conservative, she has never called herself a “moderate.” DMN claims she is a part of a moderate faction. Sounds like wishful thinking to me.
2. DMN claims “voters expressed their outrage and elected Republican’s whoe opposed the panel’s direction” What Republicans? Thomas Ratliff is the only possibility and he is only a “maybe” on this issue. Ken Mercer and Bob Craig are Republicans who won landslide re-election and voted “for” the final version of the social studies standards. Charlie Garza is a conservative Republican who defeated 22 year Democrat incumbent, Renee Nunez. I am certain Charlie Garza also would have voted “for” the final version of the social studies standards. Marsha Farney, who won a landslide election over a liberal Democrat that campaigned on changing the SBOE and social studies, have given no specific indication that she would voted against the final version of the social standards, especially if she had gone through the 18 month process along with the rest of the SBOE members. That leaves only one new vote mentioned in this article that would have voted “against” the social standards, Thomas Ratliff, and I am not even sure he would have voted against them. Remember, Bob Craig voted “for” the social studies standards, it’s likely Ratliff would have followed Craig’s lead.
Oh, and Thomas Ratliff defeated Don McLeroy by 600 votes (50.17 % -49.82%, a .35% difference) with a total of 116,000 votes casts. I would call that a “squeaker” or “close call”, hardly an expressions of “outrage” by the voters, as DMN claims.
3. Obviously, DMN has not actually read the Social Studies standards. To correct the other falsehoods by DMN on the social studies content, go to our detailed summary at www.juststatethefacts.com