Mary Lou Bruner
A few weeks ago we wrote Don McLeroy Endorses Mary Lou Bruner, in which we learned that Mary Lou Bruner (pictured above), who will be in the May runoff election for what had once been Don McLeroy’s seat on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), has been endorsed by McLeroy, the creationist dentist.
In case you didn’t know, among the countless idiocies uttered by McLeroy during his tenure on the SBOE was his strident declaration that “Someone has to stand up to these experts!” In Creationist Don McLeroy: Decision Next Week we posted a video of him making that statement before the 2009 election.
It now appears beyond question that Mary Lou will be a worthy successor to the McLeroy tradition, and is supremely qualified to occupy the post that was once his. We learn this in the Longview News-Journal of Longview, Texas, where we read Letters on education board, presidential candidates, journalism awards. The newspaper has a comments feature.
It’s a collection of three letters, but the first is from Mary Lou. Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us:
On May 24, Northeast Texans will choose their representative for the State Board of Education. Texans need members who will stand against the federal law called ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act).
Mary Lou stands against it? We never heard of it before. Wikipedia has an article on the Every Student Succeeds Act. They say:
[It’s a law that] passed in December 2015 that governs the United States K–12 public education policy. The law replaced its unpopular predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and modified but did not eliminate provisions relating to the periodic standardized tests given to students. … The Every Student Succeeds Act passed both chambers of Congress with strong bipartisan support.
That’s all we know about it, so let’s keep reading from Mary Lou’s letter:
Common Core curriculum is embedded in ESSA and the law includes measures designed to force all states to accept the top-down, one-size-fits-all curriculum even if states have laws like the Texas Education Code that forbid Common Core.
Wikipedia doesn’t say that about Common Core, but we don’t know what’s in the new law. Mary Lou continues:
I believe children belong to the parents, not the federal government.
Okay. Here’s more, and this is the good stuff:
I do not agree with candidates [presumably including Mary Lou’s opponent] who say subject matter experts, not partisan extremists, should decide what goes in textbooks.
What? Partisan extremists should prevail over experts? Mary Lou explains:
By “subject matter experts” they mean liberal university professors, Washington bureaucrats in the Department of Education and liberal national teachers association leaders. By “partisan extremists” they mean parents and local taxpayers.
Oh. Mary Lou says the “experts” are liberal university professors — probably a buncha godless evolutionist humma-seckshuls — and the “extremists” are the good folks. Interesting definitions. Moving along:
These candidates do not want parents or local teachers [presumably creationists] to have any say in the curriculum. They also do not want parents to send their children to private schools or to educate their children with home-school programs.
Those candidates are baaaaad! This is the last of Mary Lou’s letter:
I am a candidate for SBOE-9. Parents, local teachers, and taxpayers should have a say. I have 36 years experience in Texas public schools.
Mary Lou is opposed to those godless experts from outta town. She’s a worthy candidate to occupy the Don McLeroy seat.
Copyright © 2016. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
Ah yes, Mary Lou, heaven forfend that kids in Texas be encouraged to actually learn anything.
The money quote from the creationist crone: “I believe children belong to the parents, not the federal government.”
This woman, like many fundies really does, apparently, believe that rather than a responsible and thoughtful custodial relationship, parents own their children as a master owns a slave. They believe that they have granted to them by, their invisible master in the sky, the right to poison their children’s minds any way they want. In Texas, they practice this “right” with intense religious zeal.
I think that this brain-dead woman will be elected, and she will be in office for a long time. I’m sure that our Curmudgeon is rubbing his hands with glee! 🙂
Mary Lou says she has 36 years experience in the Texas public education system.
That’s quite an achievement! 36 years in school and never learning anything! There’s something about the wingnut/fundamentalist mindset that is quite incorrigible.
“I have 36 years experience in Texas public schools.”
She is an expert herself!
I wonder how many children she has miseducated in 36 years?
McLeroy during his tenure on the SBOE was his strident declaration that “Someone has to stand up to these experts!”
And yet their own “experts” from the Dishonesty Institute, e.g., Meyer, Luskin, et. al, are requested to freely to testify on behalf of ID/creationism in their hearings regarding science, or the likes of Barton types in defense of the board’s attempt to christianize history in their textbooks.
@Waldteufel, your 2nd paragraph is absolutely correct. This is exactly what they believe.
I’ve never understood the fact that Republicans are so against Common Core. Common Core isn’t a federal law. It’s initiative among state governments to establish a uniform school curriculum. I thought they were all about states rights.
@RevReinard
It is not surprising that a political bloc does not stay true to its justifications.
I think it is more likely that they have no clue what Common Core teaches nor how it came about.
What happened to common core is that the Obama administration agreed with the standards (developed by the states) and provided incentives to states to adopt common core or a similar program. Once it was supported, however indirectly, by Obama, it ceased to be a good thing and was automatically a federal intrusion, and possibly a secret sharia initiative. Who knows? If Obama supports it, it must be bad. That’s when republican politicians turned against it, even if the state educators continued to support it.
“36 years experience in Texas public schools” is not a recommendation, considering the damage done to that state’s educational system by extremists (and yes, they really are) like Mel and Norma Gabler.