{"id":2645,"date":"2017-03-29T19:55:57","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T23:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2645"},"modified":"2017-03-29T19:55:57","modified_gmt":"2017-03-29T23:55:57","slug":"these-dangerous-bills-need-to-be-disarmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2645","title":{"rendered":"These dangerous bills need to be disarmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

An op-ed I wrote was published in today’s Daytona Beach News Journal:\u00c2\u00a0Bills threaten science education<\/a><\/p>\n

Of concern to science advocates like us is the Collier group’s vociferous opposition to established, accurate science concepts. Among their targeted objectionable materials are lessons about evolution and climate change. The single most alarming statement from the bills’ supporters is this analysis of a textbook passage about evolution: “Nowhere in the material is a balanced discussion of the biblical explanation.” This week, the bill’s supporters offered affidavits from parents who said their complaints about textbooks were “ignored.” Among those affidavits, I found complaints about evolution and climate change.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Giving these grossly unscientific views a voice equal to education and science experts in the choosing of instructional materials is irresponsible and does a disservice to our children. Confusing and inaccurate science lessons based on bad instructional materials could discourage students from seeking out science careers or immediately put students academically behind their peers in college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please share widely. Our opposition is crowing about their success so far, saying: “Senators\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 aides told us they were flooded with calls.” We can only counter that if you help us. Drown out their calls with ours. If you sit idly by, our schools and our students lose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An op-ed I wrote was published in today’s Daytona Beach News Journal:\u00c2\u00a0Bills threaten science education Of concern to science advocates like us is the Collier group’s vociferous opposition to established, accurate science concepts. Among their targeted objectionable materials are lessons … 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-GF","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2633,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2633","url_meta":{"origin":2645,"position":0},"title":"“I have witnessed children being taught that Global Warming is a reality.”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I believe we can defeat the bad Instructional Materials bills\u00c2\u00a0making their way through the Florida Senate and House (see our Instructional Materials bills '17 blog category for information about these bills). I believe we can offer substantial resistance to these bills by simply emphasizing our opponent's own materials. They're handing\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":2723,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2723","url_meta":{"origin":2645,"position":1},"title":"“Antiscience bill passed in Florida”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We'll issue an official, detailed statement later. But for now, here's the bad news from today's Florida legislature (courtesy of National Center for Science Education): Antiscience bill passed in Florida A Florida bill aimed at empowering taxpayers to object to the use of specific instructional materials in the public schools,\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":2639,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2639","url_meta":{"origin":2645,"position":2},"title":"Quick Bills Updates","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a quick update on the Religious Liberties and Instructional Materials bills we're watching in the Florida legislature. Religious Liberties: The bill successfully passed through all Senate committees and the full Senate approved it on a 23-13 vote. The House version successfully passed through all committees and is awaiting\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Old_and_New_Florida_State_Capitol_Tallahassee_East_view_20160711_1-212x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2717,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2717","url_meta":{"origin":2645,"position":3},"title":"“Based upon the community standards”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The creationist-enabling instructional materials bill was debated on the Florida Senate floor Wednesday and there were finally a few tough, pointed questions posed. We believe that if this bill becomes law, it will give creationists, climate change deniers, anti-vaccine nuts and other non-science crusaders a path to challenging textbooks that\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":2690,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2690","url_meta":{"origin":2645,"position":4},"title":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How could this go sideways?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Thursday is probably our last realistic chance to put the brakes on, or at least challenge, the creationist and climate change denier's dream bill: Instructional Materials bills SB 1210 and HB 989. (See our long list of blog posts on these bills in the Instructional Materials bill '17 category.) 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":2658,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2658","url_meta":{"origin":2645,"position":5},"title":"Who will defend Florida science education?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We're facing an uphill battle as we fight against the Instructional Materials bills in the Florida legislature. We know these bills, if they become law, will almost guarantee a future fight over evolution and climate change in our classroom textbooks. It's not just conjecture. We have unambiguous evidence. The House\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\/2645"}],"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=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}