Publications

Publications and Research

The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund provides research, citizen education and leadership training on issues involving public education, religious freedom and individual liberties. To support this mission, the TFN Education Fund has published extensive reports on the influence of the religious right in Texas government; issues involving religious freedom in public schools, including Bible literacy classes and school prayer; the faith-based initiative in Texas; and the state’s troubled charter school experiment.

Contact us for videos and hardcopies of these reports and publications. PDF versions are linked below.

2009
The 81st Legislature: Change at the Capitol?
With the end of Tom Craddick’s reign as speaker and a near-even partisan split in the Texas House of Representatives, one might have assumed the religious right’s influence would be much weaker in the 81st Legislature. But the religious right’s influence over public policy was strong well before Rep. Craddick became House speaker in 2003. And while the House booted out a speaker anointed by the far right, bitter ideological battles over social issues appeared set to move to the Senate on the other side of the Capitol.

2008
Evolution, Creationism & Public Schools: Surveying What Texas Scientists Think about Educating Our Kids in the 21st Century
Creationist pressure groups claim that there is a raging controversy over evolution within the science community. But the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund has released a groundbreaking statewide survey of what science faculty at public and private universities in Texas really think about evolution and "intelligent design"/creationism. The results are not what evolution opponents want to hear.

The State Board of Education: Dragging Texas Schools into the Culture Wars
In the early 1990s, the religious right began a long process of turning a sleepy corner of Texas government the State Board of Education into a major battleground in the nation’s culture wars. Each year, the board’s far-right faction sparks battles on issues such as the teaching of evolution, medically accurate sex education and religion in public schools. Elections in 2006 brought the religious right to the brink of complete control of the state board for the first time. This third annual State of the Religious Right report from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund examines how social conservatives have become so influential on the state board and what that means for more than 4.5 million children educated in Texas public schools.

2007
God's Lawgivers? Carrying the Water for the Religious Right in Texas Government
The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund's second annual State of the Religious Right report takes a close look at state officials who carry the water for the religious right in Texas. The report describes how Terri Leo, R-Spring, and other far-right bomb throwers on the State Board of Education are dragging our public schools into the culture wars. It also profiles key legislators - including newly elected state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford - who are leading the assault on religious freedom and individual liberties at the Capitol.

2006
Reading, Writing & Religion: Teaching the Bible in Texas Public Schools
The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund's 2005 report on a flawed Bible curriculum being marketed in public schools in Texas and the rest of the country raised an important question: Just what do Texas public schools tell their students about the Bible? To find the answer, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund surveyed all of the the state's more than 1,000 public school districts. The results of this ground-breaking research have revealed serious problems in most Bible courses offered in Texas public schools. The report also offers school districts recommendations about how to create courses that are academically, ethically and legally appropriate.

The Anatomy of Power: Texas and the Religious Right in 2006
For more than a decade, Texans have watched religious extremists hijack the electoral process and promote a divisive political agenda in the state. To expose the strategy behind that deliberate campaign, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund has produced a groundbreaking in-depth examination of the religious right in Texas. State of the Religious Right: The Anatomy of Power reveals how extremists use religion to divide us and partisan politics to belittle the faith of those who dare to disagree with them.

2005
The Bible and Public Schools: Report on the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools
Prepared by Dr. Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at SMU, this report reveals that the country’s most aggressively marketed - and perhaps most widely used - Bible curriculum advocates a sectarian perspective and is taught with materials plagued by shoddy research, blatant factual errors and plagiarized sources.

The National Day of Prayer Task Force: Turning a Day of Faith into a Rally for the Christian Right
A look at the National Day of Prayer Task Force, a private organization that has hijacked community celebrations of the National Day of Prayer nationwide and turned them into Christian-only events with a political focus.

2002
The Texas Faith-Based Initiative at Five Years: Warning Signs as President Bush Expands Texas-Style Program to National Level
The Texas Freedom Network released a report in 2002 that documented the lack of accountability and other failures in then-Gov. Bush's Texas faith-based initiative.

2001
Prayer in Public Schools - Religious Freedom in Texas: Statements of Faith, Statues & Case Law