{"id":2011,"date":"2014-02-05T17:54:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T21:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2014-06-22T17:08:13","modified_gmt":"2014-06-22T21:08:13","slug":"proposed-changes-to-textbook-selection-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2011","title":{"rendered":"Proposed changes to textbook selection process"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Sen. Alan Hays filed a bill that will change the way textbooks are selected in Florida. If approved, the bill would give local school boards full control over the process and the state Department of Education would have no role. The Gradebook blog notes the bill’s filing: Florida senator files bill to remove state from textbook selection process<\/a>. You can also read Hays’ press release<\/a>. Here are a couple of excerpts:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Local school districts, not the state or federal government, are the most qualified to determine what textbooks are appropriate for Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s classrooms.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

SB 864 eliminates the statewide adoption of textbooks and instructional materials for K-12 public school students by the Florida Department of Education and places control in local school districts.<\/p>\n

The bill prioritizes transparency through open, noticed hearings that seek public input and by requiring local school districts to notify parents of their ability to access their children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s textbooks and instructional materials. A local process would also be established to appeal a district school board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to adopt particular textbooks or instructional materials.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is something we need to carefully review and monitor. When the DoE is responsible for reviewing and selecting textbooks and other instructional materials we can easily keep an eye on the process and flag anything questionable. If the responsibility shifts fully to individual school boards, how do we know if anything questionable makes it into the classroom?<\/p>\n

A couple of things concern me. First, Sen. Hays was a sponsor of anti-evolution legislation back in 2008. Second, a few school boards back then revealed themselves to be dominated by anti-evolution advocates when they passed resolutions asking evolution to be downplayed in the state science standards. Will a creationist-leaning school board consider textbooks or supplemental materials from A Beka Book<\/a>, for example. Would that be allowed under Hays’ bill?<\/p>\n

Read the bill yourself and tell me what you think: Senate Bill 864<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State Sen. Alan Hays filed a bill that will change the way textbooks are selected in Florida. If approved, the bill would give local school boards full control over the process and the state Department of Education would have no … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-wr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2318,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":0},"title":"Textbook trouble: history and sex ed","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lee County school board will hear from concerned citizens this week about the content of history textbooks under consideration for adoption. Board documents show nine objections have been filed for a sixth-grade world history text published by Pearson. Among the complaints for the book, called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153my (sic) World History,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2019,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2019","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":1},"title":"Details emerge about textbook bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As I've noted before, there is a bill in the state legislature that proposes to turn review and selection of all public school textbooks over to local school districts, removing state-level government from the process completely. In today's Tampa Bay Times there is now a more in-depth story: Bill aims\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2066,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2066","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":2},"title":"Editorial blasts textbook bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"An editorial in the Orlando Sentinel tears Senator Hays' textbook approval process bill to shreds: Don't leave textbook vetting to local districts. State Sen. Alan Hays, a Umatilla Republican whose district abuts Volusia County, isn't letting the facts get in the way of a bad proposal. A bill he sponsored\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2032,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2032","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":3},"title":"Another columnist takes apart Hays’ textbook bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Orlando Sentinel columnist Lauren Ritchie wrote a good analysis of the bad bill about textbook selection currently in the state legislature: Florida Sen. Alan Hays' bill to have school districts to choose own textbooks unworkable. Hays' proposal would require each school board to create a committee made up of half\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2032#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2124,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2124","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":4},"title":"Last day of legislative session","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The fight in the state legislature over a voucher program expansion attempt might spill over into today, the last day of the session. Florida Citizens for Science believes that expansion of the program is a bad idea without a requirement to hold voucher-accepting private schools accountable for what they teach,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2124#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2901,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2901","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":5},"title":"Marion County to review and approve textbooks on their own","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a new wrinkle in the Florida instructional materials world. We already know that the Florida Department of Education is in the process of reviewing and approving new science textbooks that school districts could then pick from to purchase for their schools. We already know that two new laws could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011"}],"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=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2012,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions\/2012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}