Some of us breathed a sigh of relief when the divisive, creationist ideologue Don McLeroy was ousted by the Texas Senate in May as chair of the State Board of Education.

How naïve we were.

If the chatter from some board members proves correct, and Gov. Rick Perry is indeed considering appointing member Cynthia Dunbar as the board’s new leader, we may find ourselves reminiscing fondly about the good ol’ days when Chairman McLeroy simply disregarded experts, sidelined teachers and insisted on inserting his religious beliefs into public policy-making.

Dunbar’s shortcomings go far beyond ideology and poor leadership skills to beliefs promoting paranoia and bigotry.

This is the same Richmond Republican who penned an online essay shortly before the presidential election warning Barack Obama was plotting with terrorists to attack Americans. She refused to retract her claim, even under pressure from Republicans.

Dunbar didn’t trust the very public schools she helps oversee with her own children; she home-schooled. And, in her recent book, One Nation Under God: How the Left is Trying to Erase What Made Us Great, calls the public education system a tyrannical, unconstitutional “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.”

Hornet’s nest

To say the least, her appointment would go a long way in deepening the divide between the socially conservative faction and everybody else on the 15-person board. It would surely intensify the squabbling and solidify the state board’s status as a national laughing-stock.

It would keep the emphasis of the board responsible for shaping curriculum for nearly 4.7 million public schoolchildren firmly on politics and culture wars instead of good public policy. And just in time for a social studies curriculum debate, involving subjects like culture and religion, that could be just as explosive as the science debate.

Surely, no governor would willfully awaken such a hornet’s nest. Surely, Perry’s pandering to far-right Republican primary voters in his gubernatorial race against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has its limits.

Perry must realize there are fine, Republican alternatives on the board who could turn the focus back to where it should be: providing a quality education for all public school children.

Bob Craig of Lubbock seems to be the best of these. From everything I know of him, the 58-year-old attorney who sent his son and twin daughters to public schools and served 14 years as a Lubbock school board trustee, seems to put the kids and teachers first.

And in every heated debate I’ve listened to, he comes across as a fair-minded, thoughtful sort.

As The Woodlands Republican Rob Eissler, state House public education chairman, puts it: “I think he does a lot of thinking before he does a lot of talking.”

Craig, a devout Methodist, found his faith and his politics under attack after voting against efforts to dilute the teaching of evolution by requiring teachers to point out the “weaknesses” of Darwin’s theory.

“Religion’s part of my life in every phase, so you don’t exclude it by any means,” Craig told me in a phone interview Monday. “But I very much feel my Christian beliefs can coexist and be intertwined with other scientific positions.”

“Religion’s part of my life in every phase, so you don’t exclude it by any means,” Craig told me in a phone interview Monday. “But I very much feel my Christian beliefs can coexist and be intertwined with other scientific positions.”

Civility lost

In the past legislative session, he supported efforts to transfer management of the multibillion-dollar Permanent School Fund from a bunch of politicians on the education board, whose financial expertise varies widely, to a separate panel of financial experts.

Why? “It’s the right thing to do,” Craig said.

After Dunbar’s essay on Obama, Craig, who had voted for Republican Sen. John McCain, penned a response to her and other board members explaining calmly why he disagreed: “He is not a terrorist,” Craig told me. “Nor do I believe he wants to destroy the values of the United States.”

Craig said a comment from a friend, Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, stuck in his mind as he wrote the letter: something about how we often lose civility in the politics of today.

If chosen by Perry, Craig told me he’d focus on bringing the board together, and also giving experts and teachers an open line of communication:

Asked how he’d continue to do the right thing under great political pressure, he said simply: ”I hope that the Republican Party is broad enough and inclusive enough that you can look at different perspectives and different points of view, and not just be narrow-minded.”

We’ll see.