Cynthia Dunbar

Cynthia Noland Dunbar (June 1964) is an American lawyer and author in Richmond, Texas who served as a Republican on the Texas State Board of Education, which establishes policy for the Texas public school system, from 2007 to 2011.^[1] In 1990, she graduated from Regent University School of Law,^[2] During the 2009-2010 academic year, she was commuting from her home in Texas to teach in the Liberty University school of law.^[3]

Political career

In 2006, Dunbar won the Republican nomination for the Texas State Board of Education for District 10, saying voters responded to her because she supports teaching intelligent design in science classes.^[4] In the general election that year, she defeated Libertarian Martin Thomen, a clerk, with 225,839, 70.38% to 95,034, 29.62%.^[5] She did not run for reelection in 2010 and her term ended in January 2011.

Her 2008 book One Nation Under God advocates that the Christian religion should be in the public square more. She has been criticized for a section of the book that calls public education a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion" as well as saying that "The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even 'tyrannical'."^[6]

In early 2008, Dunbar ran for the Republican nomination for the United States House of Representatives representing Texas's 22nd congressional district, the district formerly represented by Tom DeLay, but she eventually withdrew and endorsed Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.^[7]

In late 2008, Dunbar wrote an article on the Christian Worldview Network website saying that a terrorist attack on America during the first six months of an Obama administration would more likely "be a planned effort by those with whom Obama truly sympathizes to take down the America that is threat to tyranny."^[8] Though Dunbar was criticized, she refused to retract the claim saying "I don't have anything in there that would be retractable."^[8]

Modifications to Texas K-12 Social Studies Curriculum

As a sitting member of the Texas State Board of Education, in March 2010, Dunbar proposed and won ratification of a number of modifications to Texas K-12 social studies curriculum, notably the removal of Thomas Jefferson and mention of the Age of Enlightenment (in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority).

Namely:

• “explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present.” was changed to
• “explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone on political revolutions from 1750 to the present.” ^[9]

According to an article in The Guardian,^[10] there are a number of changes such as these:^[11]

• ...sidelining Thomas Jefferson,while introducing a new focus on the "significant contributions" of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war.
• Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
• a suggestion that the anti-communist witch-hunt by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s may have been justified.
• One curriculum amendment describes the civil rights movement as creating "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among minorities.
• ...drop[ping] references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous "Atlantic triangular trade"

Dunbar says these are important steps to overturning what she believes is the myth of a separation between church and state in the US. In 2008, Dunbar published a book, One Nation Under God, in which she argued that the United States was ultimately governed by the scriptures.

Bibliography

• One Nation Under God: How the Left Is Trying to Erase What Made Us Great (HigherLife Development Services, 2008) ISBN 0-9793227-2-3

References

1. "SBOE Officers, Committees, and Members". Texas Education Agency. 2009. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
2. "About Me". cynthiadunbar.com. 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
3. Shorto, Russell (2010-02-11). "How Christian Were the Founders?". The New York Times Magazine (The New York Times Company). Retrieved 2010-05-26.
4. "Dunbar wins party's nomination". Dallas Morning News. Mar 8, 2006. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
5. "Republicans hang onto down-ballot state positions". Austin American-Statesman. Nov 8, 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
6. "Education official's book attacked: Dunbar calls public education a 'tool of perversion'". Houston Chronicle. Dec 4, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
7. "Bitter battle brewing in District 22 race". KHOU-TV. March 25, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
8. "Education official refuses to retract Obama terror claim". Houston Chronicle. Nov 3, 2008. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
9. "Blogging the Social Studies Debate IV « Texas Freedom Network". Houston Chronicle. Mar 11, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
10. McGreal, Chris (Mar 16, 2010). "Texas Schools Board rewrite US history". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
11. "Texas Schools Board rewrite US history". Slashdot. Mar 16, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-17.

External links

• Cynthia Dunbar- Official website