In Austin, the Republican-led State Board of Education has rejected several new science textbooks over the way they present the issues of evolution and climate change.
That's an indication that the books may be watered down significantly before a final vote later this week.
One board member from Midland says he objects to a "negative view" of the fossil fuel industry, saying that could hurt the state's economy in the long term.
West Texas Congressman August Pfluger, R-San Angelo criticized the proposed Grade 8 science textbooks for complying with the current science standards, describing their inclusion of climate change as an attempt to "brainwash our children" as reported by the National Center for Science Education.
As for evolution a board member from Frisco, Evelyn Brooks, says she wants more of a focus on "creationism" to let students form their own opinion, but she was reminded by the board chair that the guidelines were already re-written by a previous board member who was himself a conservative Republican and that going any farther might, in his words, "get us close to being unconstitutional."
"It's one thing to teach it as a theory in comparison with other theories in the origin of life," Brooks said. "Children should be able to make up their own opinion, form their own opinion on both theories" according to the Austin American Statesman.
The group Texas Values also objected to the lack of information about creationism, the belief that humans, life, species, and matter were acts of divine creation in the textbooks. The group rejects "the theory that the ancestor for humankind is 'the monkey.'
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