This vendetta the anti-evolution crowd has against the new draft of the state science standards is not just a fight in the here and now. Their assault on science they quite frankly don’t understand could affect our future.
Mike Thomas, an Orlando Sentinel columnist, tells it like it is:
Science is a hot commodity in the world and national economy.
It’s why Florida is spending a fortune luring research centers like Burnham and Scripps. We need to produce employees these people will want to hire.
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These are people who don’t understand science, don’t understand how scientists work and don’t understand the use of the term “theory.” They also don’t see a problem trumping public education with their personal religious beliefs.
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I can tell you the outcome. Florida becomes a cable news freak show. The schools we’ve worked so hard to upgrade go back to joke status.
Luckily, the Department of Education staff is writing up its final version of the standards based only on scientifically valid input.
The Board of Education only needs the courage to approve it.
How do we lure the brilliant scientists we so desperately need with this marketing campaign: Put your 21st-century kids in our 19th-century schools? The danger of such a setback is real.
And from ScienceBlogs comes Thoughts from Kansas, which has a lesson for us from another state that is doing it right.
North Carolina has been building that educational pipeline for decades, and it’s paying off. That long term effort makes Kansas’s Bioscience Authority and similar one-off programs look like the stunts they are. And it is a cautionary tale to states like Florida and Texas, where science standards are currently under assault.
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This is the time for people of good will to get involved. As the example of North Carolina shows, decisions made now will affect the Florida economy for decades. A bad choice by the Board will put Florida in the media spotlight usually reserved for Kansas creationists, while a wise decision could give the Sunshine state a bright future.
