Florida Citizens for Science

Senator Storms’ tap dancing has made the news here and there. (edited to add the Palm Beach Post editorial.)

Palm Beach Post editorial: Fraudulent evolution bill

Translated, the bill wants creationism – disguised as “intelligent design” – to have equal billing in classrooms. The bill is a fraud. The staff analysis notes that “there has never been a case in Florida where a public school teacher or … student has claimed that they have been discriminated against based on their science teaching or science course work.” The bill claims not to “promote any religious doctrine,” but of course it does. It attempts to promote the fundamentalist Protestant view of how life developed.

WWSB: Senate debates evolution bill

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – The sponsor of a bill that would prohibit school officials from punishing teachers for presenting “scientific information” that challenges evolution dodged opponents’ questions today in Senate debate over her measure.

Sun-Sentinel: Lawmakers: Free speech protection should extend to sex ed classes, too

Opponents have voiced concerns that Storms’ bill will open the door to teaching religious-based theories, like intelligent design, in public school classrooms. But Storms, one of the Senate’s most conservative members, repeatedly refused to answer questions on whether that could happen.

Her only reply: teachers could discuss a “full range of scientific views.”

Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller of Cooper City, frustrated at her answers, later said: “We could have stuck bamboo shoots under her fingernails and she wouldn’t have answered.”

Miami Herald: ‘Academic freedom’ for evolution, not sex-ed

Storms said her bill was designed to counteract the ”dogmatic” new state science standards requiring for the first time evolution to be and that “people are afraid. Teachers are afraid. And students, by the way, are afraid.”

Geller objected, noting her bill says the ”Legislature finds that in many instances” teachers and students have feared or been disciplined for teaching the full range of scientific information about evolution.

When Geller asked her for names, Storms didn’t have any but said six educators who planned to talk on the topic recently weren’t given the time to address a recent Senate committee.

I definitely would love to know who these six unnamed teachers are. Even better, I want to know what they want to teach. This revealing question has yet to be asked or answered: What are some examples of critical analysis of evolution that have no religious connotations and are based on legitimate, up-to-date scientific ideas? A fuller explanation of this question is here. I want to hear Senator Storms or Rep. Hays or these six phantom teachers answer this question. Gaps in the fossil record is not an answer as it doesn’t fit the “legitimate, up-to-date scientific idea” requirement. Trying to use the Cambrian Explosion against evolution is also idiotic and doesn’t fit the requirement either. As a matter of fact, these and many others are actually old creationist distortions of real science, so it’s not a good idea to use these examples as part of the “critical analysis” in the classroom. Using them would just reveal the religious motivation behind these Trojan horse bills.

And the answer is?

I had an interesting time during lunch today. I watched Senator Storms stand before the Senate to defend her deceptively named “academic freedom” bill around noontime. I didn’t get to see the whole thing, but what I did see was train wreck fascinating.

First there was the matter of Senators Deutch and Rich introducing an amendment that blended Storms’ anti-evolution bill with sex education. It was an attempt to turn Storms’ “full range of scientific views” posturing on its head. The amendment failed, but in hindsight that is no surprise.

Storms was then hammered with questions about what the bill allows or doesn’t allow. She repeatedly deferred to the text of her bill, saying that religion will not be taught. But then intelligent design popped up. She was asked several times whether her bill would allow intelligent design to be taught in the classroom. She read from her bill, but avoided answering the question. She was asked again. She told the Senate president that the question had already been asked and answered. Senator Geller wouldn’t let her off the hook, though, insisting that she actually had not answered the question. So, he asked again. She looked down and read once more from her bill and then claimed that the text provides a checklist that any concept would need to go through before being considered for use in the classroom. Yet that still didn’t answer the question. Geller tried again, this time asking Storms if she personally would consider intelligent design as passing her checklist and getting into the classroom. He made special note that she is the bill sponsor and should know the answer to this. She was stubborn. She waved off his question by saying she had taught English and not science in the past. (The Miami Herald has an account of what happened, too.)

The question went unanswered. I must say, Senator Storms, that you aren’t a very graceful tap dancer. As Geller noted toward the end of his questioning, Storms’ refusal to answer actually gives us our answer. If this bill survives, we’re going to see Dover the Sequel right here in Florida. The Discovery Institute is chomping at the bit to find a home for their brand new book.

What happened today was referred to as the second reading. I believe it’s just a time for proposed amendments and debate, as we saw. Next up is a third reading, which is the time for final votes. We’ll have to keep an eye on the daily schedule and the bill’s page to find out when that will happen.

On the House side, I see that Hays’ bill has been lingering on the second reading list on yesterday’s and today’s schedules. Since I don’t see any mention of it being moved to a third reading (and thus vote) on the bill’s page, I assume the amendment and debate action has yet to happen. If anyone knows any different, please speak up in the comments.

If both bills pass their votes, then the two versions must be hammered together into one in a joint committee. Since both bills are vastly different in form right now (the House version was reduced to just one line), there is conjecture that the process might be difficult. I don’t know. Everything in this process is new and crazy to me.

Keep hammering the lawmakers with varying forms of correspondence. Call, e-mail and write. Visit their local offices if you can. Try to speak to aides a little higher up the food chain than just the folks who answer phones. Make ample use of Storms’ refusal to answer the intelligent design question. Educate these lawmakers about the Dover case.

Send messages of thanks to Geller, Deutch and Rich for their determination. We need to help these folks spread their reality-based skepticism to the rest of the Senate.

I’ve been hounded by folks wanting me to post somewhere on this website a listing of all lawmakers’ contact information. That’s a pretty big undertaking to be honest with you. Some folks have compiled this information, I think, and I will try to make use of what they’ve done. I’ll let you know if I get something thrown together.

(Update: The Gradebook blog has a better explanation of what is going on. Essentially, this is a proposed amendment that’s not likely to get any traction.)

ALERT: The deceptively-named “academic freedom” bill in the Senate has taken one hell of a new twist. It’s been amended in a big way. Just look at the new title:

“Evolution and Healthy Teens Academic Freedom Act.”

See for yourself here. Evolution and sex education are suddenly lumped in together.

Fred Grimm has a column in the Miami Herald that takes Florida’s anti-science legislators to task.

Five years ago, the Florida Legislature was duped into putting up $310 million to lure the Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County.

Our cracker politicians were misled by promises that Scripps’ biomedical research would be just the ticket to keep Florida from devolving into a low-skilled, low-tech, low-paid, know-nothing backwater.

Can’t blame ‘em. Jeb Bush himself was ballyhooing the deal. ”A defining moment in Florida’s future,” the governor said.

Nobody explained to our hoodwinked legislators that those Scripps fellows were nothing but a bunch of damn evolutionists.

That stuff those scientists do: tearing apart molecules, studying cellular biology and immunology and neurosciences and chemistry, hunting down cures for cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases — all of that’s based on godless evolution.