Florida Citizens for Science

Science textbooks are still an issue here in Florida. Many school districts are working their way through the lengthy process of reviewing and adopting new science books for their classrooms. And there are still a few hot spots of controversy that we need to keep an eye on.

For instance: Collier County.

Last night (May 8) the school board voted to adopt science books recommended by their various committees. But as can be expected in good old Collier County, there are objections to evolution and climate change that the school district now has to deal with.

I invite you to watch the school board meeting video. Before the issue even came up on the agenda, Keith Flaugh (from the creationist and climate-change-denying group Florida Citizens’ Alliance), spoke during the general public comment time. Go to about 59:52 to hear him do a little bullying in the name of his religion (this is my quick transcription, please let me know if there are any errors):

My public comment tonight is directed at Chairman Roy Terry. You profess to be a Christian and have sworn an oath to protect the U.S. Constitution and the Florida Constitution and the laws of this state. Yet your voting record on Judeo-Christian values, [and] the state instructional materials laws that you’ve flouted are abysmal. Several years ago you were the swing vote voting three to two to keep sexually explicit material in our public schools in direct conflict with Florida Statute 847.012. Last year you voted again three to two to adopt social studies books that undermine and distort our U.S. Constitutional values. Before you vote to adopt these science textbooks tonight that completely ignore the concepts of creationism and that champion the indoctrination of controversial man-made warming: how are you again going to vote? We are a nation and a state the embraces In God We Trust. I offer a very short but sincere and heartfelt prayer on your behalf tonight, Mr. Terry. Dear God, I beseech you, please speak to your servant Roy Terry and help him understand that if he is truly committed to you as his savior that he needs to be true to your teachings. Amen.

Now fast forward to about 2:18:26 to see what happens when the public hearing is opened concerning the science textbooks. Five people spoke against the science textbooks and no people spoke up for the books. First in line was Tom Harris who had a lot to say about one book in particular, Miller and Levine’s Biology Florida Edition, despite the fact that the book wasn’t actually recommended for adoption. It was named an alternate in case something goes wrong with the first choice. Nonetheless, Mr. Harris said:

“It withholds from students much of the scientific evidence that challenges conventional theories of biological and chemical evolution. The textbook does not provide a balanced discussion of evolution and misinforms students about scientific controversies in the four chapters devoted to the topic. Major errors and omissions include promoting the blatantly false claim that Darwin would come up with what has been called the best single idea that anyone has every had, page 741. […] Every scientific test has supported Darwin’s basic ideas about evolution. Categorically, a lie!”

He went on to say that other parts of the book were “Utter nonsense.” And then he said that a section on climate change didn’t even belong in the book. “The authors resort to fear and demagoguery in regards to the sea level rise.”

“In summary, this new edition of Miller and Levine textbook does not comply with F.S. 1006.283 and should not be considered as an alternate selection in Biology I regular and honors courses.”

This is the new, main strategy being tested by the Florida Citizens’ Alliance and their supporters. As you will see shortly, they are trying their hardest to claim that the textbooks and even the selection process violate Florida statutes. I highly recommend that you read F.S. 1006.283 yourself.

Next up was Michael Mogil, who says he’s a “certified consulting meteorologist” and that he’s been a meteorologist for about 50 years. He had examined 12 of the science textbooks that have information in them about meteorology and climate change and said that none of them are worthy of purchase. Some are meant for a college level course and that Collier County high school teachers would struggle to use them. He protested that some of the books claim that the current global temperature rise is the fastest warming ever on earth. “The books are downright awful,” he said. He had to be told a couple of times that his speaking time was up.

He was followed by Sandy Doyle, who didn’t have much of substance to say as she spent most of her speaking time reading a long list of books she objects to. But she did bring up F.S. 1006.283, too.

Next was Dr. Joseph Doyle who said he served on two of the textbook selection work groups associated with the life sciences. He says that the work groups should have 15 to 21 members according to school board policy, but one had only 12, another had nine and a few others had only six. He also said that parents should have had more representatives in the work groups. Group members should have received more training in F.S. 1006.283 and F.S. 1003.42 and they should have developed their own ranking rubrics instead of relying on ones provided to them by the school district. “There are several violations and non-compliance with statutory provisions of 1006.283, um, that really can’t, um, adopt some of these books.”

And the last speaker was Keith Flaugh. He stated that he will be submitting official objections to seven of the books, which he has until June 7 to do so.

“I call your attention to F.S. 1006.31 and I quote: ‘Instructional materials recommended by each reviewer shall be, to the satisfaction of each reviewer, accurate, objective, balanced and noninflammatory.’ It goes on to say: ‘A reviewer may not recommend any instructional materials that contain any matter reflecting unfairly upon persons because of their race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, gender, RELIGION [his emphasis] and disability, etc.’

“I understand the works groups received no training in Florida statutes so how could they possibly make value judgments about whether these books are accurate, objective and balanced? I’m not here to tell you that these books are wrong or right. I am here to tell you that Florida statutes require that they teach balanced theory and not one way only.”

The school board then had some brief discussion about where the process goes from here after they vote to adopt the materials. If there are objections (and it’s obvious that there will be some), then the soonest the objection hearing can take place is June 18. Then after that the school has to vote again to move forward with the actual purchase of the books. On top of that, it was brought up that purchasing can’t happen until the state department of education finally gets around to releasing the official state list of approved materials. Will textbooks be purchased and sitting in classrooms when school is back in session in August?

Stay tuned for more Collier County fireworks. It looks like the main Alliance strategies are to claim the books are not “accurate, objective, balanced and noninflammatory” in accordance with Florida statute. And if that doesn’t work, they’ll try the tactic of claiming the textbook selection process itself was not in compliance with Florida statute and school district policies. The Alliance already filed one lawsuit a while ago about textbooks. I predict another one will be coming.

And I hate to break the news to you, but there is another county also facing objections to evolution in the textbooks. I’ll report on that when I get more information.

I’ve been very busy tracking down results of science textbook adoption public hearings and school board votes. I’m discouraged by how many school district websites are absolutely useless in this regard. I would think that posting public notices about instructional materials adoptions on official websites would be the first thing districts would do. But I guess not. See my previous post that lists every single Florida school district and their current known status concerning science instructional materials adoption. I could use your help in keeping it updated.

Many school districts have already had their public hearings about the science materials and of those that I could find meeting summaries or videos, the vast majority didn’t have a single person come forward to speak. On the one hand, that means the creationists aren’t stampeding the school boards. On the other hand, that also means science advocates aren’t either.

One notable exception so far is in Citrus County. I was impressed to watch three women tell the board how they had inspected the textbooks and found them lacking depth in some topics. One speaker told the board that the books lacked necessary detail about topics like climate change and fossil fuels. No, they were not arguing for inclusion of anti-science! Rather they said the books needed much better fact-based information. One woman said that it seemed that some textbooks tiptoed around so-called controversial topics.

My sincere appreciation goes out to these ladies. They did an awesome job of standing up for rigorous science education. They’ve set a wonderful example for the rest of us. See them in action here. The public comments starts at about 59:50.

I’ve been doing my best to fill in the blanks and obtain updates on my earlier post March is a busy month for science textbook adoptions. In that post I listed every Florida school district and what each one’s science textbook adoption schedule is. Unfortunately, there are a lot of blanks on that list as many district websites don’t have the relevant information posted, at least not in an easy to find place. I’ve had a few people message and email me with updates, which is awesome and sincerely appreciated! But we need so many more. Please consider taking a look at what is happening in your own school district and helping us stay up to date. If you look back at that post you’ll see that I’ve added several updates concerning the results of school board hearings and votes. So far I’ve encountered very little opposition to the textbooks based on creationist or climate change denial arguments. That’s great news and I hope that trend continues. The few times when a creationist protested in some way has been documented in older blog posts, such as Clay County and Nassau County.

The only concern I’ve recently come across is in Marion County. If you’ll recall, this is the district that announced they were going to strike out on their own and not rely on the Florida Department of Education’s approved list. In February a list of textbooks was presented to the school board and approved without any fuss. But a few books were removed from consideration and so the board didn’t vote on them.

• M/J Physical Science- HMH Florida Physical Science: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: According to the presentation given at the board meeting, this book was removed due to concerns a middle school teacher had about its content. Unfortunately, the specifics were not explained at the meeting, so I don’t know what those content concerns were.
• Physical Science Holt Science Spectrum: Physical Science Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: This book was removed from consideration because there was inadequate parent input throughout the review process.
• M/J World History World History: Ancient Civilizations, Florida Edition Cengage Learning: This book was removed from consideration because there was inadequate parent input throughout the review process.

If anyone reading this is in Marion County, would you be so kind as to find out what the content problems were with the first Physical Science book, please?

Edited to add: Here is what was said during the board meeting about the Physical Science book (See the video here. The quoted part starts at about 1:41:08. Note that this is copied from the transcript generated by YouTube and so it may not be exactly accurate.):

The first one that I want to call attention to is specifically physical science. You had the absolute pleasure of hearing from one of our own Marion County middle school teachers that had grave concerns about this book. So upon hearing that our wonderful work of our Secondary Education Department listen to those concerns we actually had personnel that actually went out sat down with that wonderful teacher and really listened to the concerns and it was a substantive concern that this is not in the best interest of our students and this is not the most appropriate resource to put in front of them and we take that seriously. That is the exact reason why we have this process is not only to get the feedback of the actual reviewers themselves but also to listen to comments warranted through this process so we thank that wonderful teacher for bringing this to our attention as we as district did not evaluate for content. So we applaud her for her collegiality and engaging in academic discourse with us so we could understand what the actual issues with the book were so that we can once again start another simultaneous process to ensure that we have materials fit and suited for our students engaging in that specific course for physical science.

The speaker said “You had the absolute pleasure of hearing from one of our own Marion County middle school teachers …” but I don’t know what that references. It could be from earlier in the meeting and I haven’t found that segment, or it could mean they heard from the teacher at some other meeting.