NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/02/23
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-02-23 17:00.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, The instructional materials bill in the Florida House of Representatives passes committee, while a creationist lawsuit is dismissed in Pennsylvania, and a last-minute threat to evolution education is averted in Ohio.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS BILL ADVANCES IN FLORIDA HOUSE Florida's House Bill 827 -- which would make it easier for creationists and climate change deniers to smuggle instructional materials they favor into public school classrooms -- was approved, with slight modifications, by the House Education Committee on a 19-0 vote on February 15, 2018. If enacted, the bill would allow members of the public to recommend instructional materials for consideration by the state or their district school board, which would then be required to allow the publisher of those materials to submit a bid for evaluation. Testifying in favor of the bill was a representative of the Florida Citizens Alliance, who cited a report prepared by his organization on the supposed flaws of textbooks currently in use in Florida's public schools. As Brandon Haught of Florida Citizens for Science noted in a February 15, 2018, blog post, the report complains of the presentation of climate change and evolution (among other topics) in environmental science and history textbooks. As NCSE previously reported, the chief sponsor of HB 827, Bryon Daniels (R-District 80), was the chief sponsor of a bill in 2017 that was intended to make it easier for creationists and climate change deniers to pester their school districts. The Senate counterpart of the bill, Senate Bill 1644, was approved, with slight modifications, by the Senate Education Committee on February 12, 2018. As they currently stand, there are differences between the two bills. Neither is yet scheduled for consideration on the floor of its chamber of the legislature. For information about Florida's Senate Bill 1644 and House Bill 827, visit: http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/01644 http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=61457&SessionId=86 For Brandon Haught's blog post, visit: http://www.flascience.org/?p=3202 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Florida, visit: https://ncse.com/news/florida CREATIONIST LAWSUIT DISMISSED IN PENNSYLVANIA "For the second time in a decade, a state appeals court has told a taxpayer that he can't sue his school district because it teaches the theory of evolution in science class," reported PennLive (February 16, 2018). In 2016, Thomas J. Harclerode filed a complaint against the Everett (Pennsylvania) Area School District Superintendent and School Board, asking the district "to stop promoting ... the theory of evolution in their [sic] curriculum or giving any credence to them [sic] as well as providing the Scientific information that refutes them [sic]." In his complaint, Harclerode expressed distress that his taxes were used in part to teach evolution, which he described as "the unproven Century old Theory that Life began by Time and Chance and that Man is a direct descendant of a lower life form." He also alleged that the teaching of evolution is dangerous, citing the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer and the German dictator Adolf Hitler as supposed examples. The trial court dismissed his complaint on the grounds that Harclerode lacked standing. The state appeals court upheld the dismissal because Harclerode failed to file a timely statement of errors with the trial court, although it indicated that it would have affirmed the trial court's decision on the issue of his lack of standing. The state appeals court also observed that Harclerode's complaint was "essentially identical" (except for the warning of the dangers of evolution) to a complaint he filed in 2007, which was dismissed by the trial court on the same grounds in 2008. For PennLive's story, visit: http://www.pennlive.com/news/2018/02/taxpayer_cant_sue_school_distr.html For the ruling in the case (PDF), visit: http://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Commonwealth/out/305cd17_2-16-18.pdf And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Pennsylvania, visit: https://ncse.com/news/pennsylvania A LAST-MINUTE THREAT TO EVOLUTION EDUCATION AVERTED IN OHIO On February 13, 2018, the Ohio state board of education voted to adopt a new set of science standards -- although not without the appearance of a last-minute amendment that seems to have been intended to undermine the teaching of evolution. Evolution is prominent in the new standards, including -- for the first time -- at the middle school level. There was not a significant public controversy over the treatment of evolution during the process, unlike in 2002, as NCSE then reported. But just before the February 13, 2018, meeting of the board, Sarah Fowler (representing District 7), proposed to amend the high school standards by adding the following "overarching content statement": *** Science is a systematic method of continuing investigation, based on observation, measurement, experimentation, analysis, hypothesis testing, and theory building, which attempt[s] to provide more adequate explanations of natural phenomena; however, scientific conclusions are necessarily based upon philosophical assumptions, especially those interpreting the past or future. The nature of science is to continually test and strengthen or rebut/refute existing understandings of natural phenomena. The aligned assessment must state the philosophical assumptions upon which the expected answer is based. *** The description of science in the first sentence follows a description in the 2002 version of the standards (except that the standards contain "which leads to" where Fowler's amendment contains "which attempt[s] to"). The remainder of the first sentence, however, seems to reflect the idea -- prominent in the "intelligent design" movement -- that evolution is not scientific but based on philosophical views that are inherently antithetical to theism. At the board meeting, Fowler expressed concern that the high school standards exhibited a philosophical bias which would disadvantage students from different philosophical backgrounds, especially on state assessment tests. Although Fowler failed to identify the bias or any specific standards that exemplified it, her colleague Cathye Flory (at large) subsequently asked about how a hypothetical student who doesn't accept "the Darwin theory" would be tested. Fowler's amendment failed on a 2-14 vote, with Lisa Woods (representing District 5) joining Fowler in voting for it. A resolution to approve the standards as proposed then passed on a 15-1 vote, with Fowler the sole dissenter. For the new standards (PDF), visit: ftp://ftp.ode.state.oh.us/StateBoardBooks/February-2018/Voting%20Items/Item%209%20-%20Standards%20-%20Backup%20Material/Science%20K-12%20Standards%20Nov%202017%20Draft.pdf For video of the relevant portion of the board meeting, start at 1:37:00 of: http://www.ohiochannel.org/video/state-board-of-education-2-13-2018-part-2 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Ohio, visit: https://ncse.com/news/ohio 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 https://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog: https://ncse.com/blog Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: https://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse https://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd https://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! https://ncse.com/join
» 3925 reads
