After the national outrage and bitter debate stirred up by the State Board of Education's anti-evolution and anti-science positions in recent weeks, little House Bill 772 is welcome.

All this short bill does is require that board meetings be broadcast — with audio and video — over the Internet and that the board Web site maintain an archive of those videos. It was introduced by state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, and passed by the House on Tuesday.

HB 772 is an important first step in bringing much-needed scrutiny to the State Board of Education. Board members make news by questioning the theory of evolution and arguing that — fossil record be damned — the universe is less than 10,000 years old. Or writing that President Barack Obama is a terrorist sympathizer and intends to establish martial law, as did Board Member Cynthia Dunbar, who represents part of Austin, Travis County and Central Texas.

But Texans really don't know much about this board or how much power it has over public education in Texas. Requiring online video of their meetings will help more Texans understand just how subversive and beyond the mainstream the board majority is.

Broadcasting board meetings and archiving the videos also might wake up voters to the fact that they elect these people. Religious conservatives gained a stranglehold on the board several years ago because they understood they could win elections in which few voters knew anything about them or their extreme ideas.

The result is there for anyone to see. Chairman Don McLeroy, Dunbar and others have turned the education board into a national joke. But when it comes to teaching Texas children, what they have done is not funny.

Last week's discussion about shaping the teaching of science to allow doubts about evolution was surreal. Biology texts now must include "all sides" of scientific theories — in other words, future textbooks must include criticism of long-standing scientific theories, including evolution.

The underlying point is that a board majority wants creationism to be part of the scientific discussion. And they got enough of a foot in the door with their language about teaching "all sides" of scientific theories that publishers will have to include criticism of evolution if they want to sell science textbooks to Texas schools.

The point has been made here often that religious beliefs about creation have no place in high school biology and chemistry classes. Save that for Sunday school and let students learn science in the public schools.

But that doesn't deter board members set on pushing religion and social and political conservatism into the public schools. That's why HB 772 could make for a real eye-opener in the next election.

Voters would be able to see the board in action, hear members dismiss established science in favor of religious dogma, downplay human influence on global warming and more. If the bill becomes law, it provides an opportunity to expose the board majority for what it is — a group of religious conservatives who home school their children and have the most reactionary views imaginable on life, science, education and politics.

Enough voters might understand, then, that these people are essentially anti-education and anti-intellectual and should not have anything to do with public education and textbook selection.