NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/06/01
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-06-01 14:16.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Arizona's governor expresses his support for the retention of evolution in the state science standard there.
ARIZONA'S GOVERNOR SUPPORTS EVOLUTION IN THE STATE SCIENCE STANDARDS "Evolution should remain part of the science standards for Arizona public high schools, despite what is being proposed by the state's top school official, Gov. Doug Ducey [R] said Monday [May 28, 2018]", the Arizona Daily Star (May 28, 2018) reported. As NCSE previously reported, staffers at the Arizona state department of education tampered with the treatment of evolution and allied topics in the standards -- not long after Douglas endorsed the teaching of "intelligent design" along with evolution at a Republican candidate forum in Tempe in November 2017, as KPHX in Phoenix (May 18, 2018) reported. In addition to endorsing the retention of evolution in the state science standards, according to the Daily Star, "Ducey said as far as he's concerned, the concept of intelligent design or any sort of biblical concept of creation has no place in science classes." Also opposing the changes to the draft standards were twenty members of the state legislature in a May 24, 2018, letter to Douglas, as KVOA in Tucson (May 25, 2018) reported. The public comment period for the standards officially ended on May 28, 2018, but it was extended till May 31, 2018, owing to a website crash over the Memorial Day weekend. Before the crash, over seven hundred comments opposing the changes were tallied. For the Arizona Daily Star's story, visit: http://tucson.com/news/state-and-regional/gov-ducey-supports-evolution-remaining-part-of-arizona-science-standards/article_abfd798b-023b-57d6-bee7-a7d38cefdd6a.html For the KPHX story, visit: https://www.12news.com/article/news/arizona-could-roll-back-teaching-of-evolution-in-classroom/75-555209992 For the letter from the state legislators (PDF) and the KVOA story, visit: http://ftpcontent6.worldnow.com/kvoa/Letter%20to%20Diane%20Douglas.pdf http://www.kvoa.com/story/38281069/house-democrats-letter-to-superintendent-diane-douglas-against-changing-of-science-standards For information about the Arizona science standards, visit: http://www.azed.gov/standards-practices/k-12standards/k12engagement/az_sci_ss_standards-review/ And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Arizona, visit: https://ncse.com/news/arizona 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
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