{"id":2559,"date":"2017-02-11T11:08:44","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T16:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2559"},"modified":"2017-02-11T11:08:44","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T16:08:44","slug":"kentucky-gives-insight-into-florida-religious-liberties-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2559","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky gives insight into Florida religious liberties bills"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"adamevedino\"<\/a>The Kentucky legislature is considering Religious Liberties bills that are remarkably similar to ones filed here in Florida. Here’s a link to the Kentucky bill<\/a> and, for comparison, here is a link to the Florida bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Language from the Kentucky bill:<\/p>\n

… a student shall be permitted to voluntarily:
\nExpress religious or political viewpoints in classroom, homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination or penalty based on the religious or political content of the submissions<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Language from the Florida bill:<\/p>\n

A student may express his or her religious beliefs in coursework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination. A student’s homework and classroom assignments shall be evaluated, regardless of their religious content, based on expected academic standards relating to the course curriculum and requirements. A student may not be penalized or rewarded based on the religious content of his or her work if the coursework, artwork, or other written or oral assignments require a student’s viewpoint to be expressed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why does this matter? Because in the news article\u00c2\u00a0Ky. Senator: Christians Are Ones ‘Being Persecuted’ In Schools<\/a>, a bill sponsor had this to say:<\/p>\n

Asked if the bill might provide legal grounds for students to challenge answers on tests \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for example, a creationist student who disagrees with a science teacher about the age of the earth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Robinson said the student should be free to repeat what was learned in class while appending his or her opinion without fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n

“What I would do if I was answering, I’d say, ‘Well, according to my beliefs it’s 6,000 [years old], but according to what you say it’s more,'” the lawmaker told WUKY. “You still answered a question and it would be retaliation if they were to say you’ve got to believe what I believe and you can’t believe what you believe.”<\/p>\n

But Robinson adds, “A teacher, if they had respect, they would go ahead and respect and admire a student who thought for themselves.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hey! I want to play that game, too. Teacher: “Little Suzie, what is 2+2?” Suzie: “Well, according to my beliefs it’s 3, but according to what you say it’s more.”<\/p>\n

Does that answer about basic math sound silly? It should, just like the answer about the age of the earth. It’s not a case of students thinking for themselves. It’s a case of students believing something demonstrably false.<\/p>\n

Of course, that is a Kentucky lawmaker commenting on a Kentucky bill. But there are undeniable parallels to the Florida bills. The Kentucky senate approved their version of the bill and there is a good chance the house bill will cross the finish line, too.<\/p>\n

What will happen in the Florida legislature? We’ll see once the session kicks off March 7. Both Florida bills have been assigned to review committees and both have picked up cosponsors, which are signs that these bills might have some life to them.<\/p>\n

A Call to Action<\/h3>\n

Want to help Florida Citizens for Science stand up for sound science education in our home state? You can keep informed via this blog, Facebook <\/a>and Twitter<\/a>. But we sincerely need people willing to take on a more active role!<\/strong> We need people to monitor and take swift action when needed in Tallahassee by personally visiting lawmakers or making phone calls or networking with other like-minded organizations. The Religious Liberties bills might not be the only ones to potentially impact science education this legislative session. We’re also preparing for the science textbook adoption process that will kick off later this year. We’ll need vigilant citizens all across the state to help then! And when will the Florida Department of Education update the state science standards? We need eyes and ears looking out for that.<\/p>\n

Contact any of our board members <\/a>to learn more.<\/p>\n

(Image from UnusualCards<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kentucky legislature is considering Religious Liberties bills that are remarkably similar to ones filed here in Florida. Here’s a link to the Kentucky bill and, for comparison, here is a link to the Florida bill. Language from the Kentucky … 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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Fh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2582,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2582","url_meta":{"origin":2559,"position":0},"title":"Religious Liberties bill passes Senate education committee","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A bill that is potentially harmful to science education in Florida schools was reported favorably (in other words, it passed) by the Senate education committee today. The Religious Liberties bill was passed on a party-line vote of 5-2. The Senate bill still has to get through a judiciary committee meeting,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2594,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2594","url_meta":{"origin":2559,"position":1},"title":"Religious Liberties bill on a fast track","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00c2\u00a0Religious Expression in Public Schools bill filed in the Florida Senate is now scheduled to be heard by the judiciary committee March 14 (Tuesday) at 2 p.m. We need you to contact the senators on the committee and urge them to amend or stop this bill due to concerns over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2570","url_meta":{"origin":2559,"position":2},"title":"When more is not merrier","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We noted yesterday that the bad Instructional Materials bill from last year has been resurrected for another attempt this year in the Florida House. Unfortunately, the House bill now has a companion in the Senate that was filed today: SB 1210. I believe it's a duplicate of the House bill.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2572,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2572","url_meta":{"origin":2559,"position":3},"title":"Update: Religious Liberties bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A bad bill filed in the Florida Senate by Sen. Dennis Baxley that could potentially affect science education has taken its first step forward. SB 436, entitled the Religious Liberties bill, is scheduled to be considered by the education committee on March 6 at 1:30 p.m. Many bills are filed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2551,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2551","url_meta":{"origin":2559,"position":4},"title":"“A solution in search of a problem”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science needs your help! It's going to be a busy year for us and we need all the vocal, passionate, action-oriented science advocates we can find to support our cause. Please read all the way to the end of this post and consider our call to action.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2615,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2615","url_meta":{"origin":2559,"position":5},"title":"Lots and lots of bill updates today","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a bit to talk about today. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll start with the Religious Liberties bills that we oppose on the grounds they can negatively impact science education. One passed the Senate judiciary committee this afternoon on a narrow, party line vote of 5-4. I spoke at this meeting but I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Instructional Materials bills '17"","block_context":{"text":"Instructional Materials bills '17","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=32"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559"}],"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=2559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2562,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559\/revisions\/2562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}