NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/06/07
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2013-06-07 16:10.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear Friends of NCSE, Louisiana's equal-time-for-creation-science law remains on the books. A reminder that NCSE is seeking a new executive director. A new issue of Reports of the NCSE is available. And a new voice for evolution is raised in Oregon.
BALANCED TREATMENT ACT REMAINS ON THE BOOKS Louisiana's Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act remains on the books, after the Senate and the House of Representatives agreed to adopt a version of Senate Bill 205 lacking a provision repealing the act. The Balanced Treatment Act -- not to be confused with the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, enacted in 2008 and surviving three attempts at repeal -- was enacted in 1981 and ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1987 in its decision in Edwards v. Aguillard. As NCSE previously reported, SB 205 originally provided only for the establishment of foreign language immersion programs in public school districts. But after the Senate Committee on Education tabled Senate Bill 26, which would have repealed the LSEA, the committee amended SB 205 to repeal the Balanced Treatment Act. As amended, SB 205 passed the Senate on a 36-2 vote, despite the protestations of Ben Nevers (D-District 12), who expressed opposition to the repeal of the Balanced Treatment Act, arguing that it would be useful for it to be on the books in case the Supreme Court ever reverses its holding in Edwards. Significantly, Nevers was the Senate sponsor of the LSEA in 2008. When SB 205 went to the House Education Committee, the provision that would repeal the Balanced Treatment Act was removed. The resulting version of SB 205 passed the House on a 69-30 vote on June 3, 2013, but the Senate rejected it, with no discussion, on a 36-0 vote on June 5, 2013. The bill then proceeded to a conference committee, which agreed on a version of the bill lacking the repeal provision. On June 6, 2013, the bill was passed by the House on a 58-22 vote and by the Senate on a 37-0 vote. For information on Louisiana's Senate Bills 205 and 26, visit: http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=13RS&b=SB205 http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=13RS&b=SB26 For the text of the decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, visit: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/edwards-v-aguillard.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Louisiana, visit: http://ncse.com/news/louisiana HELP WANTED: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NCSE is seeking to hire a new executive director to replace Eugenie C. Scott, who is retiring after more than twenty-six years at NCSE's helm. Duties will include serving as the public face of NCSE -- its primary representative to the public, the press, and NCSE's allies -- and serving as the chief executive of NCSE, ultimately responsible to the Board of Directors for the conduct of NCSE's internal and external operations. Further information about duties, qualifications, salary and benefits, and the application process is available from NCSE's job page. For the announcement of Scott's impending retirement, see: http://ncse.com/news/2013/05/ncses-scott-to-retire-0014832 For NCSE's job page, visit: http://ncse.com/about/jobs RNCSE 33:3 NOW ON-LINE NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on-line. The issue -- volume 33, number 3 -- Robert J. Raikow and Radmila Raikow's article "Transitional Forms" and Courtney St. John's "Climate Change Adaptation: Lessons from Unlikely Sources." And for his regular People and Places column, Randy Moore discusses the career of the fundamentalist cartoonist Jack T. Chick. Plus a host of reviews of books on geology and paleontology and their history: Antonio Lazcano reviews David Deamer's First Life, Joseph G. Meert reviews Robert M. Hazen's The Story of Earth, Steven Newton reviews David R. Montgomery's The Rocks Don't Lie, Kevin Padian reviews David Sepkoski's Reading the Fossil Record, Alycia L. Stigall reviews Neil Shubin's The Universe Within, and Derek Turner reviews Brett Calcott and Kim Sterelny's collection The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited. All of these articles, features, and reviews are freely available in PDF form from http://reports.ncse.com. Members of NCSE will shortly be receiving in the mail the print supplement to Reports 33:3, which, in addition to summaries of the on-line material, contains news from the membership, a regular column in which NCSE staffers offer personal reports on what they've been doing to defend the teaching of evolution, a regular column interviewing NCSE's favorite people, and more besides. (Not a member? Join today!) For the table of contents for RNCSE 33:3, visit: http://reports.ncse.com/index.php/rncse/issue/current/showToc For information about joining NCSE, visit: http://ncse.com/join OREGON EDUCATORS ADD THEIR VOICE FOR EVOLUTION The chorus of support for the teaching of evolution continues, with a statement from the American Federation of Teachers -- Oregon, adopted in 2013. In its statement, AFT-Oregon observes that "biological evolution is a fundamental underpinning of modern biological thought and research and is not the subject of controversy among scientists ... [but] the unfettered teaching of evolution in public schools has been under attack since the early part of the twentieth century." Now in the twenty-first century, "a strategy to teach creationism, intelligent design, or evolution denial into public science classrooms has emerged with the passage of laws intended to teach these theories as science under the guise of protecting academic freedom in the classroom"; Louisiana and Tennessee are cited as cases in point. Invoking the expertise of the American Association of University Professors and NCSE, the statement concludes by affirming that "AFT-Oregon encourages and expects Oregon's science teachers, in presenting evolution and other topics, to understand, respect, and communicate the consensus of the scientific community, in order to present the science curriculum effectively to their students" and that "AFT-Oregon will be on alert for, and opposed to, bills at the state or federal level that attempt to use the guise of academic freedom as a means of introducing creationism, intelligent design, or evolution denial into science classrooms." AFT-Oregon's statement is now reproduced, by permission, on NCSE's website, and will also be contained in the fourth edition of NCSE's Voices for Evolution. For AFT-Oregon's statement, visit: http://ncse.com/media/voices/american-federation-teachers-oregon And for information about Voices for Evolution, visit: http://ncse.com/voices Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website -- http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them. -- Sincerely, Glenn Branch Deputy Director National Center for Science Education, Inc. 420 40th Street, Suite 2 Oakland, CA 94609-2509 510-601-7203 x305 fax: 510-601-7204 800-290-6006 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Read Reports of the NCSE on-line: http://reports.ncse.com Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd http://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! http://ncse.com/join
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