A lot is riding on the results of the election that concluded yesterday — the next president, the fate of the Republican Party and the future of science education in Texas. The last item in this list may seem odd and far removed from the focal point of the politics, but the newly elected and re-elected members of the Texas State Board of Education will have the final say on whittling down the state’s biology curriculum. 

In September a committee of school district officials voted to finalize their decision to remove four curriculum standards that challenged the theory of evolution. These standards were first adopted in 2009 by a Republican-dominated State Board of Education who defended them as a way to mend the gap between science and religion. This followed a preliminary vote in July on what measures to take to improve the science curriculum in the state. However, their decision will not go into effect until the Texas State Board of Education reviews it and makes the final say on state science standards.

Traditionally the Texas State Board of Education has been Republican-led, and the election of Keven Ellis coupled with the re-elections of Ken Mercer, Donna Bahorich and Tom Maynard has continued this trend. With a Republican dominated Board of Education for yet another year, it’s likely that they will vote down the changes to the science curriculum and will keep teaching creationism in the science standards for Texas.

Currently, proponents to keep the curriculum as-is, with the four anti-evolution standards remaining in place, argue that the standards allow for critical thinking within students. They believe that questioning evolution will promote students to look at scientific issues from multiple sides and draw their own conclusions based off the evidence provided.

But critical thinking in science comes not from adding religion to the mix and questioning a widely accepted theory, but from implementing the scientific method and experimenting. To add religion and creationism to the mix denies students the right to a proper science education and leaves them in the dust when it comes to learning science at the university level. 

The Texas State Board of Education must look past their conservative beliefs and vote for the changes to the state science standards. They must do this not only to improve the education of children in Texas and to better prepare them for university, but to lift Texas’ education ranking within the United States. Texas is tied for 28th among 2016 US high schools and places 43rd among the states nationally in K-12 education. The newly elected and re-elected State Board of Education members must remove the creationist standards from the Texas science curriculum to improve Texas’ rank among the states and to provide
students with a better science education.

Berdanier is a philosophy junior from Boulder, Colorado. Follow her on Twitter @eberdanier.