But a second problem with one-sided biology textbooks is parallel to the problem with one-sided American history textbooks: They don’t help students to understand and value life on Earth. If American history in schools becomes a diatribe about the rich and powerful running over the poor, and if history-of-the-universe teaching in biology classes is a similar tale about survival of the fittest and the eradication of all others, then we are educating students not in democracy but in a kill-or-be-killed philosophy.

As Texas textbooks go, so go the nation’s because publishers unwilling to lose a big market dance to the Texas Board of Education’s tune. Publishers have until early October to propose changes in their textbooks, and the board will vote in November on which textbooks to approve. It’s great that Bill Clinton and Co. see the dangers of corrosive history textbooks. It’s ironic that most liberals are adamant about defending corrosive Darwinism, even though its lack of scientific standing becomes clearer each year.

And here’s the third piece of education news: While the battle for some educational diversity went on in Austin, 100 miles up the road in Waco, the Baylor University faculty senate voted 26-6 that Baylor President Robert Sloan should be fired, and the regents voted 31-4 that Sloan should stay on. The split developed for many reasons, but foremost among them is Sloan’s plan to strengthen Baylor’s Christian mission, from which the university has strayed considerably in recent decades. 

The split sentiment is not surprising given that professors everywhere tend to slide toward secular liberalism—that’s how careers flourish. But education for democracy and truth cannot be built on corrosive principles.