After four years, the smear campaign against Mary Knott Perkins is still the talk of East Texas. There is a wince in her voice as she tells the story of how she lost her seat on the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) to Donna Ballard, a Christian conservative firebrand.  "I'm a very traditional person," says Perkins, a Democrat and grandmother of seven. "I had never even been called a liberal. I'm a Methodist. But I was called an atheist and a feminist. I was accused of advocating masturbation for five year olds. My good name was sullied all over my district. Anybody going into politics today is going to face it."

        The smear campaign featured a mass mailing, sent just a few days before the 1994 election to every voter in Perkins' district. It included a photo of two men-one black, one white--who were naked from the waist-up and kissing. The flyer claimed that it was "just an example of the materials the current majority of the State Board of Education wants your children to read."

        That year, Perkins and two other incumbent Democrats were defeated by right-wing Christians, giving the Republicans a majority on the SBOE. That, however, was only the first wave in a long-term struggle. Now, after two election cycles, a group of conservative Christian Republicans who vote as a bloc is poised to achieve an eight-to-seven majority on the board after elections this November. Its chances of picking up the four seats necessary for an absolute majority are good. Four of the five contests pit Christian right Republicans (one of whom is an incumbent) against Democrats. Working in their favor is the 81 percent approval rating currently enjoyed by Republican Gov. George W. Bush, who will likely have long coattails. If they win in November, the Texas SBOE will be the most significant elected body over which the Christian right has ever gained control.

        At first glance, these low-profile, unpaid offices would seem unlikely to become the object of a high-stakes electoral battle. But the National Christian Coalition has made control of the Texas SBOE a national priority since at least 1995. Their strategic reasoning is well founded. The  SBOE is not only powerful, but due to the peculiar dynamics of Republican politics in Texas, reasonably within their reach. The SBOE sets policies and standards for all of the state's public schools, including college-level adult education. Its members are elected from 15 districts, each of which is about the size of two congressional districts. Its directives are carried out by the Texas Education Agency, which oversees the education of 3.8 million students.

        The sheer size and purchasing power of the system makes the SBOE a major player in American educational publishing. Texas spent $177million on textbooks in 1997. Most importantly, though, the SBOE controls the state's unique Permanent Student Fund, which currently contains $18 billion in invested assets. While the fund is now used to supplement local public schools at $300 per student per year, the SBOE could use the cash to set up voucher systems or hire private management companies to run public schools.

        The campaign is just one part of a national trend. Groups led by the Christian Coalition are seeking to take over the Republican Party at all levels, and already have become a major voice in the GOP. In some states, such as Texas, they are now the dominant faction. Indeed, the Texas GOP chairwoman, Susan Weddington, is a former Christian Coalition lobbyist and the vice chairman, David Barton, is a Christian nationalist author whose book, The Myth of Separation, attacks the constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state. In June, Weddington and Barton were re-elected unanimously to their posts at the Texas GOP convention, which was held in tandem with the Texas Christian Coalition convention. Barton served as master of ceremonies at the coalition's annual "Faith and Freedom" dinner, which honored six "conservative heroes" from the SBOE.  In Texas, as elsewhere around the country, the secret of the Christian right's success has been to forge a disciplined voting bloc that fields and backs candidates through the GOP primaries and into the general elections.  Their candidates have capitalized on the long-term decline in voter participation in America, and exert clout vastly disproportionate to their real numbers. A recent survey by the Committee for the Study for the American Electorate shows that turnout in the primaries in Texas in March was just 7.9 percent of eligible voters, the lowest of the 10 states surveyed.

        In Texas, the Christian right has allied itself with conservative businessmen who want to privatize public education and who have injected big money into SBOE races. The point-man on this project has been James Leininger, the San Antonio-based owner of a medical supply company, who has poured millions of dollars of his personal fortune into Texas politics since the late '80s.  His political action committee, Texans for Governmental Integrity, produced the sleazy flyer that helped defeat Mary Knott Perkins back in 1994.  Leininger's principle partner in Texas campaign finance, Wal-Mart heir John Walton of Bentonville, Ark., may stand to benefit personally from privatization. Since 1996, Walton made six-figure donations to two Leininger-connected political-action committees, A+ PAC for Parental School Choice and Putting Children First. Funds from these PACs have benefited the campaigns of most of the Christian right SBOE members as well as a number of candidates for the legislature.

        Walton has pumped millions of dollars into the national movement for school choice. He has invested in pro-voucher politicians in California, as well as $25,000 in a failed 1993 school-choice initiative in California. The Texas Observer reports that Walton has put "$2 million of his own money into a foundation that is attempting to establish charter schools in California." Both Leininger and Walton made news recently by launching a multimillion dollar, privately funded voucher program so that poorer children could go to private schools.

        Their work seems to be paying off.  While Texas does not have a state voucher program, its legislature authorized a large pilot program to charter private schools in 1995. In East Texas, notes Perkins, many expect full privatization to follow. "All these churches are building little schools to get ready for vouchers," she says.

        Critics discern an underlying purpose behind Walton's philanthropy and political contributions. Walton is a founder and has been a major investor in the Tesseract Group, a company that pioneered contracting out the management of public schools. If more public funds are directed to private education, Walton's company could make a lot of money.

        While the alliance between the Christian right and the privatization lobby has made it a pivotal force in the campaign for the SBOE, their drive for control is causing rifts within the Republican Party. Originally, Republicans welcomed the Christian right and downplayed concerns about their agenda and tactics. In 1995, Republican SBOE chairman Jack Christie told the Houston Press, "I'm not at all worried that [the Christian faction is] going to have an extreme right-wing agenda." But in 1996, the Christian right fielded a Leininger/Walton-funded primary challenger who spent $50,000-an unprecedented figure-in an unsuccessful attempt to unseat him. Now,  Christie accuses the Christian rightists of "McCarthyism." Christie's change of mind has led the Democrats and moderate Republicans on the board to form a coalition against the Christian right. But after November, this group could become a minority.

        Two SBOE races on opposite ends of the state will be the bellwether campaigns. Last year, Donna Ballard resigned from the seat she won in 1994 to move with her husband, a Pentecostal minister, to his new congregation in Midland, Texas. They arrived just in time for her to qualify for the 1998 GOP primary, which she won with 73 percent of the vote. Incumbent Democrat Rene Nunez of El Paso is considered vulnerable, despite his long record of service in a generally Hispanic, Democratic district.  After Ballard resigned, Gov. Bush appointed GOP Executive Committee member Grace Shore to complete Ballard's term. Shore is also considered a "swing vote," who generally swings with the Christian right. In May, for instance, she voted with the Christian right bloc in an unsuccessful effort to allow students to opt out of health classes, which include information on sexuality and AIDS, and take a hard science such as anatomy instead. Shore's Democratic challenger is Charlotte H. Coffelt, a retired teacher and school principal, and a leader of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Coffelt accuses the Christian right bloc of having "a very exclusive view of the public schools. They deny racial and religious diversity." Indeed, Shore faces a tough task: She must retain moderate GOP supporters of public education without losing the trust or votes of conservative Christians. Even Bush has been finding himself caught between the moderates and the zealots on education issues: Donna Ballard charges that "contrary to his campaign promises, Bush has embraced the education establishment. At this hour of need, leadership from the governor is lacking."

        Members of the Christian right bloc have held up textbooks and new educational programs time and again over content disputes. Democratic board member Mary Helen Berlanga, an attorney, recalls Christian right objections to a picture of a working mother in a textbook: "They wanted a woman baking a cake instead." Last year, board member David Bradley objected to Focus on Algebra because the textbook used problems based on environmental issues to teach students the real-world value of math. At a 1997 school board meeting, Bradley angrily ripped off the book's cover and threw it on the floor. "I reject this book," he declared.

        Based on the public proclamations and records of Christian right board members and candidates, if they secure a majority on the SBOE, they can be expected to try to expand the charter school program, create a state-financed voucher program, implement school prayer, display the Ten Commandments in school buildings, instruct staff to teach creationism, and end education about sexuality and AIDS. They would also likely withdraw from the federal Goals 2000 Program -- a program, originally proposed by President George Bush, to raise academic standards. The program, which began in 1994, is scheduled to provide Texas schools with $100 million by 1999.

        The Christian right's biggest hurdle may not be the election, but the state legislature and the courts. In a 1995 effort to depoliticize the textbook selection process, the Texas legislature voted to strip the SBOE of its authority to screen textbooks for content--limiting its role to evaluating books for accuracy, efficacy in teaching essential skills and physical integrity. At the same time, the legislature mandated a major overhaul of the curriculum, which was called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The Christian right bloc and its allies fought TEKS tooth and nail, seeking to filibuster with angry public testimony, placard waving demonstrators at the usually staid public meetings and endless points of parliamentary procedure.  While the Christie-led coalition prevailed, observers fear their work could be undone in November.

        After the legislature's decision, Christian right board member Robert Offutt suggested vetting books for content anyway, to see if anyone sues. "I will not support any proposal, even for one year, that removes the ability of this board to consider the content of textbooks," Offutt told the Dallas Morning News in 1996.

        Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democratic board member, predicts that if the Christian right bloc succeeds in November, the legislature may move to strip the board of all of its authority, or switch to an appointed board. The legislature would have a precedent: In the mid-'80s, the legislature shifted the SBOE from an elected to an appointed body in order to implement an education reform agenda proposed by a commission headed by Ross Perot. The commission's "no pass, no play" eligibility rules for school sports, which sought to establish the primacy of academics over high school football, were enacted by the appointed board before the legislature reinstituted SBOE elections. However, the Christian right would be unlikely to relinquish its hard-won power without a fight.

        While these colorful battles have drawn the most attention, the great sleeper issue may  be control of the Permanent School Fund. The Texas Constitution appears to give sole authority to the SBOE to dispense the $18 billion fund. But the legislature or the state attorney general may ask the courts to clarify the board's authority if the board tries to use the fund to advance the Christian right's religious and political agenda.

        A number of progressive groups hope things don't go that far. The Texas Freedom Network, a statewide organization headed by Cecile Richards (the daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards), plans to release a video this summer defending public schools and attacking the Christian right. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is carrying the banner of public education in this year's elections. Democrats hope that by aggressively responding to character assassinations and putting together some old-fashioned get-out-the-vote efforts, they will thwart the Christian right takeover and preserve the current majority of moderate Republicans and Democrats. The good news, they say, is that the Christian right, though better organized, still makes up less than 30 percent of the Texas electorate.

        A new era in the politics of education has begun, with very clear battle lines drawn. Whether the coalition that has governed the SBOE recently will stay in power remains to be seen. GOP moderates tend to be loyal to the party, even when radical right candidates are not.  The outcome and conduct of the campaign itself may alter politics in the state and the nation well into the next century.

(c) 1998 Frederick Clarkson

--Frederick Clarkson has reported on the religious right for 15 years. He is, most recently, the author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy (Common Courage Press