Florida Citizens for Science

The bad instructional materials bills that we believe can open up the doors of our schools to grossly anti-science ideologies cruised through two committee meetings today.

The Senate Education Committee gave a favorable report on a unanimous 9-0 vote.

The House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee gave a favorable report on a unanimous 14-0 vote.

I wasn’t able to view or listen to either meeting. I hope to watch the recordings but I don’t know that I’ll have the time anytime soon. If you were able to watch, or if you can watch the recordings, I encourage you to give us a report on what happened in the comments or via email. We need to know if our concerns were brought up at all. (Links to the Senate Education Committee video can be found on this page. Links to the House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee video can be found on this page.)

I know that it’s frustrating to lose. But this was just one round. The Senate bill still must go through the Appropriations Committee. The House bill still must go through the PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee and the Education Committee.

If our voices weren’t heard in today’s committees, then that should give us the motivation to be even louder the next time.

Contact lawmakers on the committees by both phone and email (use the above committee links). Make sure you clearly state your opposition to the bills and why you’re opposed. Emphasize the harm to science education and why our concerns are real and must NOT be dismissed as far-fetched (see our post “Nowhere in the material is a balanced discussion of the biblical explanation” for details about our issues with the bill and the evidence for our claims.) Explain to them the humiliation Florida experienced the past few times creationism became a statewide education issue.

I know we all have jobs and responsibilities at home, but is anyone possibly available to go to Tallahassee to speak at any of the future committee meetings? Our opposition has multiple representatives hard at work there. We need to have a turn at the microphone.

Use the comments section of this post. Email Florida Citizens for Science board members or give us a call. We need your help and we need to hear from you.

What are you going to do to defend science education today?

The bad Instructional Materials for K-12 Public Education bills are both seeing action this week.

In the Florida House:

On Monday at 12:30 the House version (HB 989) will be considered by the PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee. However, the bill might change. A proposed committee substitute has been filed, which, if approved, would replace the original version.

I’ve looked over the proposed replacement and I see that the part allowing any taxpayer to challenge instructional materials has been changed to “a parent or a resident of the county.” That narrows the potential for trouble from carpetbaggers from anywhere to just local folks.

Another change is that the bill is shorter by six pages primarily due to the removal of a lot of specific language such as one thing we here at Florida Citizens for Science have been questioning: instructional materials must “Provide a noninflammatory, objective, and balanced viewpoint on issues.” The tricky thing is that it’s not actually gone. Instead of spelling it out, the bill now simply refers to various existing Florida statutes, such as 1006.31, which states: “Instructional materials recommended by each reviewer shall be, to the satisfaction of each reviewer, accurate, objective, balanced, noninflammatory, current, and suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented.”

So, our concerns about how this bill could affect science education aren’t going away. Statements made by the Collier County group that recruited lawmakers to file and sponsor these bill need to be spotlighted. Please go back and read my previous post about how they complain that evolution passages in textbooks don’t have “a balanced discussion of the biblical explanation” and they praised an apparently successful effort in Brevard County to keep materials out of the schools partly because they contain statements about human-caused global climate.

I encourage you to read the House Staff Analysis for the bill. It is a helpful document as it outlines what effects the bill would have if approved. One interesting part of the bill is:

The [bill] revises provisions relating to a school district’s process for challenging the adoption of an instructional material by:

• allowing a resident of the county to challenge the school district’s adoption of an instructional material; and
• requiring the process to meet the procedural safeguards of the Administrative Procedures Act relating to the appointment of an unbiased and qualified hearing officer. The officer may not be an employee, agent, or contractor of the school district.

Right now, I believe that once a school board makes a decision about the use instructional materials that someone has challenged, that decision is final. But if I understand correctly, this bill would require the appointment of a hearing officer.

In the Florida Senate:

Meanwhile, the Senate version (SB 1210) will be considered by the Education Committee Monday at 1:30. So far, I don’t see any indication that there are any changes to that bill.

Call to Action:

Both committee meetings will be held in the afternoon. That gives you time in the morning to contact all of the lawmakers on each committee to register your concerns and opposition to these dangerous bills. Go to the committee webpages and click on each lawmaker’s link to find their email and phone information. If anyone wants to compile that information for ease of use, please feel free to do so in the comments. I encourage you to highlight the Collier County group’s own opposition statements about evolution and climate change. It would be invaluable to have lawmakers bring them up during the committee meetings as evidence against these awful bills.

The instructional materials bill in the Senate has now been scheduled for a hearing in the education committee March 27th. Last year the bills didn’t make it on to any committee calendars. So this is an unfortunate step forward for them them this year. Call education committee senators now. Refer to our Instructional Materials bills ’17 blog post category for background information on this bad bill that can have a significant negative impact on science education.

The group behind these bills is Florida Citizens’ Alliance. In news stories that have been published about these bills so far we’ve pointed out that evolution and climate change could be targets. But representatives of the Alliance blow off our arguments, claiming that’s not a goal of their campaign. That’s a very bold lie. They want materials that “Provide a non-inflammatory, objective, and balanced viewpoint on issues.” They constantly tout their Objectionable Materials list [link to pdf] as proof that these bills are needed. Scroll down on that document to page 8 and you will find:

“Florida History: People And Nations” Authors: Anatole Mazour, John Peoples, Publisher: Harcourt. In Collier and Marion Counties so far, teams in Volusia, Okaloosa, Charlotte and Brevard are in process’. This book is full of factual errors and half-truths. http://goo.gl/vYTYtR

That link takes you to a page on their website that has several “objections” to “factual errors and half-truths” about evolution. And another objectionable material complaint is also on page 8:

World History- Ancient Civilization: Author” Holt McDougal, Publisher: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt 6th grade History: These two pages teach the children that we descended from apes. This is stated as a fact not a theory. http://goo.gl/MNqVBm

That link takes you to another page with this significant red flag: “Nowhere in the material is a balanced discussion of the biblical explanation.”

And just a few days ago, the Alliance reported a victory in getting supplemental materials removed from 6th grade classrooms in Brevard County that referred to man-made climate change as fact. (Note: we need to research this claim. If anyone reading this is in Brevard County, please help us verify this.) In response to one statement found in the materials, the objection was:

This statement leads the child to believe that man made global warming is a scientific fact, when it is not. Man made global warming is a hoax, based only on computer models and false data, and is an injustice to the child, by not teaching scientific fact. It is pure and unadulterated false propaganda.

Representatives of the Alliance are clearly lying with the proof seen right there on their own website and in their own materials promoting the bills! A clear goal of these bills is to target evolution and climate change.

Don’t let them get away with this. Contact the senators on the education committee. Challenge this bill on behalf of science education in our state!