{"id":2032,"date":"2014-02-22T16:49:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T20:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2014-06-22T17:07:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-22T21:07:27","slug":"another-columnist-takes-apart-hays-textbook-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2032","title":{"rendered":"Another columnist takes apart Hays’ textbook bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hays’ proposal would require each school board to create a committee made up of half teachers, half residents to choose the textbooks. Apparently, that’s because residents are somehow uniquely qualified to know what’s accurate in textbooks, which ones are appropriate for which grade levels and which will help students pass tests on the new standards, called Common Core. And teachers, of course, know all about fields other than their own.<\/p>\n

Nothing could go wrong in this scenario, right?<\/p>\n

These committee members would have to spend literally thousands of hours reading multiple textbooks for the hundreds of classes offered across every level from kindergarten to 12th grade.<\/p>\n

The bill has lengthy Web-posting and public-hearing requirements. And just for good measure, it would prohibit pornography in school textbooks. Thanks, Alan! That’s been a terrible worry for so long now. Every time those kids open their math books, out pop photos of breasts! Nekid ones! It’s been such a chore to keep the boys’ minds on fractions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … 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-wM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2011,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2011","url_meta":{"origin":2032,"position":0},"title":"Proposed changes to textbook selection process","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2011#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2318,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2318","url_meta":{"origin":2032,"position":1},"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":2124,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2124","url_meta":{"origin":2032,"position":2},"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":2025,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2025","url_meta":{"origin":2032,"position":3},"title":"Editorial against textbook bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A Tampa Bay Times editorial today says: No room for political games on textbooks. The editorial notes that the new bill filed in the state legislature that would completely take the state government out of textbook selections was motivated by \"unsuccessful culture warriors.\" I had discussed this issue in previous\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":2032,"position":4},"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":2421,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2421","url_meta":{"origin":2032,"position":5},"title":"They’re not dead yet & Getting the word out there","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my previous post I said that the \"instructional materials\" bills in the state legislature don't look like they're going anywhere. But I also said that they can't be considered dead yet. I was right:\u00c2\u00a0'No bill is dead' in Florida Senate Education, chairman says. Chairman John Legg told the Gradebook\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '16"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '16","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=31"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032"}],"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=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}