Texas Gov. Greg Abbott picks homeschooler to chair State Board of Education

David Edwards
25 JUN 2015 AT 14:03 ET                  
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A Texas watchdog group expressed concerned this week after Gov. Greg Abbott named a new chairperson to the State Board of Education who has never sent her own children to a public school.
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Last week, Abbott announced that he was appointing Houston Republican Donna Bahorich, a former communications director for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to chair the Board of Education.
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According to Texas Public Radio, Bahorich homeschooled her own sons before sending them to a private high school.
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The Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog group, warned that Bahorich would “put culture war agendas ahead of educating more than 5 million Texas kids.”
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“If Gov. Abbott wanted to demonstrate that he won’t continue his predecessor’s efforts to politicize and undermine our state’s public schools, this appointment falls far short,” Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said in a statement. “The governor has appointed as board chair an ideologue who voted to adopt new textbooks that scholars sharply criticized as distorting American history, who rejected public education for her own family and who supports shifting tax dollars from neighborhood public schools to private and religious schools through vouchers.”
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Even Republican State Board member Thomas Ratliff called the move a mistake.
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http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/texas-gov-greg-abbott-picks-homeschooler-to-chair-state-board-of-education/