{"id":2712,"date":"2017-05-02T17:04:40","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T21:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2712"},"modified":"2017-05-02T21:02:43","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T01:02:43","slug":"theyre-both-theories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2712","title":{"rendered":"“They’re both theories”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"senate\"<\/a>Welcome to the final week of the Florida legislative session. Today, the creationist-enabling Instructional Materials bill (SB 1210<\/a>) is being debated on the Senate floor. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out the Instructional Materials bills ’17<\/a> blog category here to find out why creationists, climate change deniers and anti-vaccine nuts love this bill that could impact how textbooks are chosen on the local school board level.) As of this writing, I don’t know if the bill has actually been debated yet or if that will come later. I’ve been at work all day, as I’m sure most of you have been, so I haven’t been able to monitor today’s proceedings. If I understand the process correctly, senators will just ask questions and debate the merits of the bill today without any voting. Then the bill needs to be scheduled for a full Senate vote on some later date. Of course, I could be wrong about that. I’m no expert, and it is the final week of session. I don’t know if the process can be expedited before the session ends on Friday. We’ll see.<\/p>\n

While we wait to see what happens, the online news website Motherboard published a story today about the Instructional Materials bills: Florida Bills Would Let Citizens Remove Textbooks That Mention Climate Change and Evolution<\/a>. I’m excited about the story because for the very first time, one of the main bill creators\/supporters, Florida Citizens’ Alliance’s Keith Flaugh, has finally been directly confronted with our science education concerns. His thoughts on the matter are quite revealing:<\/p>\n

Keith Flaugh, co-director of the Florida Citizens’ Alliance, a libertarian advocacy group, argued the bills are about transparency and giving communities greater say in school materials, which he said are currently being chosen by “politicized” school districts and “establishment” textbook companies.<\/p>\n

“The science here is not proven on either side,” Flaugh said. “There are lots of scientists on both sides of that equation: Creationism versus the theory of evolution. They’re both theories. And all we’re asking for is both sides of the discussion in a balanced way be put in front of the students.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If only this view had been drawn out of Flaugh so much earlier! I don’t know if it would have done any good. But at least now there is clear evidence that Flaugh wants something in Florida schools that has been repeatedly judged by the court system to be unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What happens now? Assuming the Senate bill is voted on and approved by Friday, I believe the next step is that the House<\/a> and Senate versions, which have some differences, need to be reconciled before a final joint version can be forwarded to the governor for signature. Does the merging of the different versions need to happen before Friday? I don’t know. I’m out of my depth right now. Anyone with better knowledge of the process is more than welcome to chime in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the final week of the Florida legislative session. Today, the creationist-enabling Instructional Materials bill (SB 1210) is being debated on the Senate floor. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out the Instructional Materials bills ’17 blog category … 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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-HK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2684,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2684","url_meta":{"origin":2712,"position":0},"title":"“The truth is going to be different based on your own experience and your own bias”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"An article in today's Naples Daily News reports on the textbook selection process going on right now in Collier County:\u00c2\u00a0Committee presents new textbooks, Collier school board to vote next month. Keep in mind that the Instructional Materials bills that we here at Florida Citizens for Science are fighting against in\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":2717,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2717","url_meta":{"origin":2712,"position":1},"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":2656,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2656","url_meta":{"origin":2712,"position":2},"title":"Bad Instructional Materials bill keeps on moving","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the House\u00c2\u00a0PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee considered the Instructional Materials bill that we know will open the door to creationists and climate change deniers wanting to challenge how science is taught in Florida schools. The bill was approved on a 12 to 2 vote. It has one more committee stop to\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":2712,"position":3},"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":3147,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3147","url_meta":{"origin":2712,"position":4},"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":3471,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3471","url_meta":{"origin":2712,"position":5},"title":"Book-Banning bill update 3\/30","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Another week has slipped by in Florida's annual legislative session and so far the issues we here at Florida Citizens for Science are most concerned about are stalled or defanged. What was the most dangerous bill on our radar, HB 855 -- which had been dubbed the book-banning bill --\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sciencetextbookswarming.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sciencetextbookswarming.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/sciencetextbookswarming.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712"}],"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=2712"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2715,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2712\/revisions\/2715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}