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May 18, 2010

Merryl H. Tisch

Chancellor, New York State Board of Regents89 Washington Avenue

Board of Regents, Room 110 EB

Albany, NY 12234

cc: Milton Cofield, Vice Chancellor; David Paterson, Governor; Neil Breslin, State Senator; Jack

McEneny, State Assemblyman

Ms. Tisch,

I am writing you today to express my concern over the recent alterations and amendments madeby the Texas Board of Education to the Texas Social Studies curriculum. This is a step in a continuing

process to attempt to alter what Texas school children are taught and force a religiously-dictated

curriculum on to a captive and impressionable audience.I am primarily concerned over how many significant principles on which our country was

founded are being glazed over in what is obviously a campaign by an extremely conservative faction

led by the, admittedly, Young-Earth Creationist Dr. McLeroy. I am hopeful that the State of New Yorkalready has procedures and laws in place to prevent the biased activities of another state from dictating

what our student are taught by way of the textbooks they read.

The objective of Dr. McLeroy and his faction is to get a Fundamentalist Christian version ofhistory taught in public schools. This is part of a plan call the the Wedge Strategy developed by

Christian Fundamentalists and Creationists. If you are unaware of this attempt at forcing a Biblical

version of natural history and the forced instruction of Christianity in public schools, I urge you to look

up the Wedge Strategy on Wikipedia. This particular document was developed by the DiscoveryInstitute which is a Fundamentalist, anti-evolution, pro-Christian theocracy organization. The

document was leaked by a whistle blower and can be read in its entirety online. You may already be

familiar with the Discovery Institute as the result of their participation in Tammy Kitzmiller, et al. v.Dover Area School District, et al where the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools was

ruled unconstitutional by Judge John E. Jones III. Additionally, they were directly involved with the

Texas Board of Education's attempt at inserting Intelligent Design into Texas' science curriculum.I'm certain you share my conviction in the value of the First Amendment of the United State's

Constitution as well as the immense value of the Scientific Method. I strongly urge you and your

associates to work to enact a mechanism by which any actions by an activist board of education can be

nullified at the borders of the State of New York. The State California has recently started to takeaction to deliberately block Texas-forced changes in text books when Senate Bill 1451 was introduced

by State Senator Yee. Religiously motivated attacks on the education of our children can not be

tolerated.

Sincerely,

Myron Getman201 Park Ave., Apt. 6

Albany, NY

myron@myrongetman.com