{"id":2575,"date":"2017-03-03T16:58:04","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T21:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2017-03-03T16:58:04","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T21:58:04","slug":"instructional-materials-bills-starting-to-get-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2575","title":{"rendered":"Instructional Materials bills starting to get attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Textbooks\"<\/a>Two bills filed in the Florida legislature that could make significant changes to how textbooks and other instructional materials are selected and reviewed at the local school district level are getting attention from the media and other organizations. We believe that the bills (House Bill 989<\/a> and Senate Bill 1210<\/a>) could open a\u00c2\u00a0back door for inserting creationism and climate change doubts into the classroom and now our concerns are being noted. For background on our opposition to the bills, see the series of posts in our Instructional Materials Bills ’17 category<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First, the Miami New Times has a story today:\u00c2\u00a0“Antiscience” Bill Would Force School Boards to Listen to Silly Complaints About Books<\/a>. The article doesn’t shed any new light on the issue, saying that the House bill’s sponsor, Byron “Donalds, who is also pushing controversial legislation that would undercut the Sunshine Law, could not be reached for comment.” But the story does put our concerns front and center to a wider audience, which we certainly appreciate.<\/p>\n

Also, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, an organization that supported our opposition to similar bills last year, is ready to do it again this year:\u00c2\u00a0Florida Classroom Censorship Bills Return for Second Year<\/a>. We’re looking forward to partnering with them for another round.<\/p>\n

The House version of the bill has picked up a few co-sponsors. In addition to the main sponsor, Donalds<\/a>, there are also Joe Gruters<\/a>, Stan McClain<\/a>, and Charlie Stone<\/a>. The bill has been assigned to the PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee<\/a>, PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee<\/a>, and the Education Committee<\/a> but it hasn’t been put on any of the committees’ meeting schedules yet.<\/p>\n

The Senate version has also picked up co-sponsors. In addition to the main sponsor, Tom Lee<\/a>, there are also Debbie Mayfield<\/a> and\u00c2\u00a0Greg Steube<\/a>. The bill has not been assigned to any committees yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two bills filed in the Florida legislature that could make significant changes to how textbooks and other instructional materials are selected and reviewed at the local school district level are getting attention from the media and other organizations. We believe … 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":[32],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Fx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2381,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2381","url_meta":{"origin":2575,"position":0},"title":"Tracking Textbook bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We will use this post to try and keep track of two bills in our state legislature that could change textbook adoption and review procedures. See our previous post for a summary of why these bills are of concern. Senate Bill SB 1018: Instructional Materials for K-12 Public Education 12\/17\/15\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":[]},{"id":2414,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2414","url_meta":{"origin":2575,"position":1},"title":"A little press about “instructional materials” bills","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"An Orlando Sentinel columnist takes apart several bills that Sen. Alan Hays has filed this year in the state legislature:\u00c2\u00a0Hays files wild bills in Senate. His bill about school instructional materials, which Florida Citizens for Science opposes, gets a mention: Hays wants parents to be able to inspect all \"instructional\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":[]},{"id":2698,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2698","url_meta":{"origin":2575,"position":2},"title":"It’s time to make a difference","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationists, climate change deniers and anti-vaccine nuts are gloating. The instructional materials bill that will allow them to gum up the local textbook selection process and bully school boards into compromise passed its final House vote. Representatives approved it 94-25. Meanwhile, the final Senate committee to hear it said yes\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":2710,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2710","url_meta":{"origin":2575,"position":3},"title":"“It’s like a return to the Flat Earth Society.”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The creationist-enabling bills that have been coasting through our state legislature are attracting negative attention lately. We certainly appreciate that a couple of recent articles are raising awareness about these horrible bills. (See the Instructional Materials bill '17 blog category for all the details about these bills.) Orlando Sentinel:\u00c2\u00a0Florida wants\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":2788,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2788","url_meta":{"origin":2575,"position":4},"title":"Your last chance to stop bill loved by creationists is now!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is it, ladies and gentlemen. You've been hearing about it from us for months now. The bill that would empower creationists, climate change deniers, anti-vaccine proponents, and other factual science education foes to challenge the textbooks and other instructional materials in school districts across the state is on the\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":2567,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2567","url_meta":{"origin":2575,"position":5},"title":"It’s baaaaack: Instructional Materials bill filed","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last year, Florida Citizens for Science voiced our opposition to bills filed in the Florida legislature that would have made significant changes to how textbooks and other instructional materials are selected and reviewed at the local school district level. The good news is that the bills died. The bad news\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\/2575"}],"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=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2576,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions\/2576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}