{"id":2676,"date":"2017-04-14T15:45:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T19:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2676"},"modified":"2017-04-14T21:14:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T01:14:38","slug":"were-educating-the-public-and-you-can-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2676","title":{"rendered":"We’re educating the public and you can too"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Take-Action-2-300x212\"<\/a>We’ve been working hard here at Florida Citizens for Science in an effort to stop the horrible instructional materials bills that are working their way through the state legislature. House Bill 989<\/a> and Senate Bill 1210<\/a> would give the green light to creationists and climate change deniers to harass school boards across the state about what’s in textbooks and other materials teachers use. I’m happy to report that we’re now making good headway in educating the public about the impending disaster that will result if these bills become law.<\/p>\n

A team of us co-wrote an op-ed that’s going to be printed in Sunday’s Gainesville Sun. But the paper has already posted it online. It was great working with Jiri Hulcr and Andrea Lucky on this piece: Bill Seeks to Hijack Educational Standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s education standards were created cooperatively with input from Florida educators and parents, as well as business and community leaders. The instructional materials bill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real goal has nothing to do with improving or enhancing the standards. Instead, it is a thinly veiled attempt by a special interest group to hijack Florida education and provide a new avenue to infuse their agenda into public schools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I also got an op-ed published in the Tallahassee Democrat today:\u00c2\u00a0Anti-science education bill not benign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If this bill becomes law, school boards will become inundated with demands that certain books be banned and that schools must discontinue using textbooks that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mesh with a vocal minority\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ideological views. This bill allows any county resident, not just parents, to force school boards to take seriously their unfounded claims that textbooks are biased and inaccurate.<\/p>\n

This bill requires school boards to appoint hearing officers to consider nonsense complaints, in essence giving protestors on a crusade nearly equal weight in the instructional materials selection process as education and subject matter experts.<\/p>\n

This bill is a disaster and your local school board can very likely be a casualty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Tallahassee Democrat also published an opposing op-ed that tries to claim that the bills are all about resisting the textbook industry monopoly. It’s a nonsensical, weak argument to say the least. Read for yourself:\u00c2\u00a0Florida school boards should control curriculum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And the Lakeland Ledger published a letter by Florida Citizens for Science president Jonathan Smith: Make America Smart Again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a deliberate attempt by those with a religious and\/or political agenda to deliberately censor curriculum in Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public schools.<\/p>\n

We at Florida Citizens for Science strongly oppose this bill and are very concerned that it will essentially remove real learning and discourse from our Florida classrooms. If we want to make America great again, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start with making America smart again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now it’s your turn. Share our op-eds widely. Send them to the lawmakers in Tallahassee. We still have a chance to make a difference in the Senate since the bill will still have to be heard in one more committee meeting: Appropriations<\/a>. And we can also try to convince representatives to argue\u00c2\u00a0against the bill when it is presented to the full House for questions and debate, which I believe will happen on Tuesday (18th). So, don’t be a spectator. Send emails, make phone calls and pay personal visits to as many lawmakers as you can. Together, we can make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve been working hard here at Florida Citizens for Science in an effort to stop the horrible instructional materials bills that are working their way through the state legislature. House Bill 989 and Senate Bill 1210 would give the green … 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-Ha","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3147,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3147","url_meta":{"origin":2676,"position":0},"title":"The Florida House’s bad textbook bill now has a Senate companion","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida House Bill 827 (Instructional Materials), filed in November by Rep. Byron Donalds in preparation for the 2018 state legislative session proposes changes to several of our laws that govern the review and selection of instructional materials used in our public schools. It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a Senate companion bill for\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":[]},{"id":3189,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3189","url_meta":{"origin":2676,"position":1},"title":"Alert: Bad Instructional Materials bill on the move!","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A bad Florida Senate bill we're watching is on the move! SB 1644 is on the education committee agenda for Tuesday, Feb. 6. The committee meets at 9 a.m. Senate Bill 1644 (and\u00c2\u00a0Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s House Bill 827) would, if enacted, revise the procedures for adopting instructional materials to permit members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2381,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2381","url_meta":{"origin":2676,"position":2},"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":2933,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2933","url_meta":{"origin":2676,"position":3},"title":"What’s in store for the next Florida legislative session?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The creationist, human-caused-climate-change-denying group Florida Citizens Alliance was successful in writing and getting passed a new law that dramatically impacts how instructional materials used in our schools can be challenged and changed -- in a bad way. (See the Instructional Materials bills '17 blog category if you don't know what\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":[]},{"id":2567,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2567","url_meta":{"origin":2676,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":2414,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2414","url_meta":{"origin":2676,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676"}],"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=2676"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2682,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions\/2682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}