{"id":1267,"date":"2011-03-13T19:38:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T23:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1267"},"modified":"2011-03-13T19:39:41","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T23:39:41","slug":"press-release-2011-%e2%80%9ccritical-analysis%e2%80%9d-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1267","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: 2011 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Critical Analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Citizens for Science Press Release:<\/strong>
\n“Critical Analysis” bill harmful to Florida science education.<\/p>\n

Florida Citizens for Science opposes Senator Stephen Wise’s recently filed bill — SB 1854, Required Instruction in the Public Schools<\/a> — as it is clearly unnecessary, harmful to science education, and sends a negative message to science-based industries that would otherwise consider setting up shop in our state.<\/p>\n

This bill is a waste of our lawmakers’ precious time. Sen. Wise’s bill directs schools to give “a thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution.” If taken at face value, the “critical analysis” that Sen. Wise is calling for is already a significant part of our state’s new state science standards that were approved by the State Board of Education in 2008. Benchmarks SC.912.N.1.3 and SC.912.L.15.1 already require critical analysis and logical thinking in all of the sciences. However, Sen. Wise wants to single out one subject for special attention out of the multitude of sciences taught: evolution. That alone sends a clear signal that this bill has ulterior motives.<\/p>\n

Sen. Wise was quoted in the news when he introduced a similar bill in 2009, saying that he wanted schools to teach the idea of “intelligent design” in biology classes alongside evolution (The Florida Times-Union; Feb. 8, 2009; “Wise to introduce bill on intelligent design<\/a>“). A federal court case decided in 2005 (Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District<\/a>) left no doubt that the idea of intelligent design was solidly grounded in a specific religious ideology. That court case loss was costly for the school district involved, and tore the community apart. No Florida school district can afford to fall into such a draining legal pit! A recent article in the Tampa Tribune (March 13, 2011; “Legislator\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s challenge to evolution has some alarmed<\/a>“) made it clear that a lawsuit could be a consequence of Sen. Wise’s bill: “There would be litigation were some county school district to be silly enough to be enticed by the legislation to teach religion instead of science.” This would be an awful waste of critical resources that should go to educating our children.<\/p>\n

It is noteworthy that Sen. Wise now refuses to state what his proposed critical analysis would look like. In the same March 13 Tampa Tribune article, he was vague, proposing only something he called “non-evolution” and “a theory of whatever.” Sen. Wise needs to be honest and forthright. What kind of “critical analysis” is he really wanting?<\/p>\n

Florida’s leaders have been working for years to bring bio-tech industries to our state. Many scientists, especially biologists, will consider this bill to be an attack on an established, core scientific principle. It will be clear to these businesses that Florida leaders don’t value science education, and the resulting stigma can only drive away the very industries we are trying to attract. These companies need a well-educated workforce, and Sen. Wise’s bill would be in opposition to that need.<\/p>\n

Florida Citizens for Science encourages all of our state’s lawmakers to send a clear message that sound science education is important to our state. Vote no on SB 1854!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Citizens for Science Press Release: “Critical Analysis” bill harmful to Florida science education. Florida Citizens for Science opposes Senator Stephen Wise’s recently filed bill — SB 1854, Required Instruction in the Public Schools — as it is clearly unnecessary, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,24],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-kr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":941,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=941","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":0},"title":"Letter in the Ledger","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science vice president Jonathan Smith had a letter published in the Lakeland Ledger today: Sen. Wise's \"Critical Analysis\" Bill Is Nothing More Than a Shell Game. Are our politicians so naive to think that this bill, should it pass, will not be vigorously challenged and fail, just\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=941#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1270","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":1},"title":"Florida Academy of Sciences opposes Wise’s bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Academy of Sciences has issued a position statement opposing Senator Stephen Wise's antievolution bill. A pdf of their position statement is here. Some excerpts from the Florida Academy of Sciences' statement: SB 1854, in effect, leaves the door open for the introduction in the public school curriculum of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":926,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=926","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":2},"title":"Press Release: “Critical Analysis” bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science Press Release: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Critical Analysis\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bill Undermines Florida Science Education Florida Citizens for Science is disappointed that Senator Stephen Wise has chosen to waste the valuable time of his fellow legislators and possibly deepen a school district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s financial difficulties by filing a bill challenging the teaching of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"ID Creationism\" bills '09"","block_context":{"text":"\"ID Creationism\" bills '09","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=27"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1262,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1262","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":3},"title":"Newspapers not kind to antievolution bill so far","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The early news reports and blog posts about Senator Stephen Wise's antievolution bill (SB 1854) (and see my previous post) are not too kind to his repeated attempts to undermine science education. Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas has a blog post \"Groan ... evolution back on trial in the Legislature.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1281,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1281","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":4},"title":"National news keeping eye on Florida","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of national news outlets are taking note of Senator Wise's antievolution bill. They're both just rewrites of Florida stories, but they are still worth logging in here on the blog. The Huffington Post has a story: \"Florida State Lawmaker Takes Heat For Bill That Would Require Teaching Of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1261,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1261","url_meta":{"origin":1267,"position":5},"title":"The return of the Florida antievolution bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It's baaaaack! State Senator Stephen Wise is taking another stab at challenging the teaching of evolution in Florida schools with Senate Bill 1854 \"Required Instruction in the Public Schools\". There are other non-science-related items in the bill, but the part that targets evolution reads: 1003.42 Required instruction.\u00e2\u20ac\u201d (2) Members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}