NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/06/22
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-06-22 12:16.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Good news from Collier County, Florida, and encouraging news from Michigan.
VICTORY IN COLLIER COUNTY, FLORIDA "The Collier County School Board voted 3-2 on Monday [June 18, 2018] to adopt a new batch of science textbooks after residents filed objections to more than a dozen of them," according to the Naples Daily News (June 19, 2018). The objections were filed pursuant to a 2017 law that, as NCSE previously reported, allows any county resident -- not just parents as previously -- to challenge instructional materials used in the public schools, and requires the school districts to establish a formal process to hear such complaints, including appointing an "unbiased and qualified hearing officer" not "an employee or agent of the school district." In Collier County, according to the Naples Daily News, "[t]he overall theme of the objections was a lack of balance and context in references to evolution and climate change and the treatment of those topics as fact rather than theory." The meeting lasted five hours, "the vast majority of which was spent hearing from objectors [Michael] Mogil, [Keith] Flaugh and [Joseph] Doyle, none of whom have children attending Collier public schools." Similar objections have been filed elsewhere in Florida, including in Brevard, Martin, and Nassau counties, but the Collier County school board's vote was particularly significant because the law was vigorously supported by groups based in Collier County whose members acknowledged that they objected to the treatment of evolution and climate change, among other topics, in textbooks used in the public schools. On Florida Citizens for Science's blog (June 19, 2017), Brandon Haught, himself a science teacher, reported wide support for the integrity of science education at the meeting: "Collier County isn't actually a seething nest of creationists and climate change deniers." For the story in the Naples Daily News, visit: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/education/2018/06/19/evolution-climate-change-skeptics-lose-battle-over-science-textbooks/698855002/ For the 2017 law, visit: http://laws.flrules.org/2017/177 For Brandon Haught's report on Florida Citizens for Science's blog, visit: http://www.flascience.org/?p=3315 And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Florida, visit: https://ncse.com/news/florida ENCOURAGING NEWS FROM MICHIGAN Half of the members of Michigan's state board of education would oppose the new proposed state social studies standards, which were revised to downplay climate change among other topics, according to a report from Bridge magazine (June 14, 2018). The revisions that affect the treatment of climate change are primarily at the grade 6 level, where a reference to global climate change was removed, and at the grade 7 level, where a section on geography was largely deleted. "I know the Democrats feel strongly and are concerned" about the proposed changes, board member Michelle Fecteau, a Democrat from Detroit, told Bridge, adding, "If there is a 4-4 split, it doesn't pass." Casandra Ulbrich, a Democrat from Rochester Hills, explained that she and her three Democratic colleagues could move to amend the standards, or decline to vote on them, or vote them down and return them for further work. The final decision will be taken by the state board of education. In the meantime, public comment on the standards will be accepted at a series of public meetings around the state and also on-line until June 30, 2018. For the story from Bridge magazine, visit: https://www.bridgemi.com/talent-education/michigan-school-board-dems-we-will-block-conservative-social-studies-changes For the draft standards (PDF), visit: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/SS_May_2018_Cut_Cap_Final_622356_7.pdf For the on-line comment form, visit: https://fs28.formsite.com/pf98Hd/form7/index.html And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Michigan, visit: https://ncse.com/news/michigan 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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