Assholes of the week!

This has turned out to be an interesting week. We are going to give you two assholes for the price of one.

The first loud fart goes to Texas Govenor Rick Perry for appointing Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education.

The second louder, and wetter fart, goes to Don McLeroy himself for being the new chairman of the State Board of Education. (The board makes the decisions regarding the school fund and its investments, textbook selection for all school grades and curriculum standards for public schools.)

The board also is the state licensing entity for charter schools.

As chair, McLeroy leads a board of 10 Republicans and five Democrats and McLeroy, a self-described social conservative, is one of the Republicans who vote as a bloc on nearly all issues.

He has a reputation for casting votes that are based more on ideology than on science or facts.

In 2001, McLeroy and a majority of the board rejected the only Advanced Placement textbook for high school environmental science because its views on global warming and other events didn't comport with the beliefs of the board majority. (These guys are all Right Wing Fundamentalists.)

The book wasn't factual and was anti-American and anti-Christian, they claimed.

(Meanwhile, dozens of colleges and universities were using the textbook, including Baylor University, the nation's largest Baptist college.)

In 2003, McLeroy voted against approving biology textbooks that included a full-scale scientific account of evolutionary theory.

(Luckily, the books were approved!)

A majority of Texas public school students are minorities, and they are largely from lower-income households. Many students don't speak English and are living in homes headed by single parents. Schools today are tackling issues such as teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, gang violence and harassment of female and gay students.

That's the environment in which students learn to live and work in a global economy.

McLeroy seems stranded in a Beaver Cleaver universe that is light years from the reality of today's schools. (Or perhaps the "Bugs Bunny Show!")

As the Chair and a board member, McLeroy deserted a conservative principle of local control. Instead, he and other GOP board members have sought to consolidate power and force their ideological agenda on all school districts.

Those tactics continue to spawn public feuds over textbook selection and curriculum content.

All of that has left the board more marginalized and has diminished its role in shaping public schools.

But the board still is capable of significant mischief.

McLeroy's elevation to chairman comes as the board begins a revision of science standards for public schools. That could prove embarrassing for Texas if McLeroy pushes for standards that push theology over science.

If McLeroy wants to restore the board's credibility, he should promote standards — and textbooks — that educate, not preach.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com