NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2016/04/22
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2016-04-22 15:18.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A creationist lawsuit against Kansas's adoption of the NGSS fails again. And the vacation creationism bill dies in Kentucky.
A DECISION IN THE COPE APPEAL The creationist lawsuit seeking to reverse Kansas's 2013 decision to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards on the grounds that the state thereby "establish[ed] and endorse[d] a non-theistic religious worldview" failed again on April 19, 2016, when the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court's dismissal of the case, COPE et al. v. Kansas State Board of Education et al. The court's decision mainly addressed the question of standing, agreeing with the district court that the plaintiffs lacked standing to assert any of their claims. Interestingly, though, the decision observes in a footnote that COPE's suggestion for "teleological" explanations to be added to the standards would be unconstitutional. As NCSE previously reported, the lead plaintiff, COPE, Citizens for Objective Public Education, is a relatively new creationist organization, founded in 2012 but its leaders and attorneys include people familiar from previous attacks on evolution education across the country, such as John H. Calvert of the Intelligent Design Network. The NGSS have been adopted in eighteen states -- Arkansas (so far only for middle school), California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia -- plus the District of Columbia. The treatment of evolution and climate science in the standards occasionally provokes controversy, but COPE v. Kansas is the only lawsuit to have resulted. For the court's decision (PDF), visit: http://ncse.com/files/2016-04-19-Judgment.pdf And for NCSE's collection of documents from COPE v. Kansas, visit: http://ncse.com/legal/cope-v-kansas-state-boe VACATION CREATIONISM BILL DIES IN KENTUCKY Kentucky's Senate Bill 50 died in the House Education Committee when the legislature adjourned on April 15, 2016. The bill would have extended the duration of summer vacation in the state's public schools in order to boost tourism -- including to a creationist attraction. As NCSE previously reported, the bill's cosponsor Damon Thayer (R-District 17) identified a creationist attraction as a beneficiary, telling the Grant County News (August 12, 2015), "Grant County is set to become a major tourist destination due to the presence of the Ark." Thayer was referring to Ark Encounter, a Noah's-ark-themed attraction -- now scheduled to open on July 7, 2016 -- operated by the young-earth creationist ministry Answers in Genesis, which also operates a "museum" in Kentucky. As NCSE previously reported, educators in Kentucky have reportedly been cool to the idea of the state requiring local schools to start later in the year, citing both the ideal of local control of education and the danger of impairing student learning. The bill passed the Senate Education Committee (which revised it somewhat), the Senate Rules Committee (which also revised it somewhat), and the Senate, on a 33-4 vote, but ultimately stalled in the House Education Committee. For Kentucky's Senate Bill 50 as introduced (PDF), visit: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/16RS/SB50/bill.pdf And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kentucky, visit: http://ncse.com/news/kentucky WHAT'S NEW FROM THE SCIENCE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Have you been visiting NCSE's blog, The Science League of America, recently? If not, then you've missed: * Emily Schoerning lamenting biodiversity loss in a site with familial significance: http://ncse.com/blog/2016/04/so-much-left-to-save-0017017 * Glenn Branch tracking a passage mistakenly attributed to Thomas Henry Huxley: http://ncse.com/blog/2016/04/pseudo-huxley-quotation-part-1-0016857 http://ncse.com/blog/2016/04/pseudo-huxley-quotation-part-2-0016858 * Stephanie Keep applauding Carl Zimmer's take on the term "theory": http://ncse.com/blog/2016/04/well-said-carl-zimmer-theories-0017021 And much more besides! For The Science League of America, visit: http://ncse.com/blog 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. 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600 Oakland CA 94612-2922 510-601-7203 fax 510-788-7971 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog 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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