NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/06/01

(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 

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