Wow, very cool. The reason that Texas should NOT take the bait of federal money is that it will drive what textbooks we use in our schools...and that is a MAJOR factor, if not the top factor, in the decline of American Education.
Math is something I know a bit about, and here are a couple of things to look at:
http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/28/fuzzy-math-a-nationwide-epidemic/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI
The bottom line is that curricula like Everyday Math is so BAD...that parents are FORCED to get their kids remedial help (either teaching the kids themselves, tutors, or after school learning centers...which you might note ONLY use traditional methods). Therefore, we DO NOT want to burden parents with this additional expense (or time needed), when the kids should be learning in school, instead. It’s just too expensive for Texas parents...and many parents, particularly minority parents, cannot even get their kids the help they need to counteract these programs, and their kids simply do worse and worse.
This is a start...I’m sure I’ll come up with more today.
As far as I can tell, they did the science (and math?) last year, including the big evolution/creation debate. This year it’s social studies.
Meteorologists ROCK!
She is so right. I saw the same thing when I went back to college and that was well before she did.