{"id":2723,"date":"2017-05-05T18:11:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T22:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2017-05-05T18:11:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T22:11:13","slug":"antiscience-bill-passed-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2723","title":{"rendered":"“Antiscience bill passed in Florida”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Antiscience bill passed in Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Florida bill aimed at empowering taxpayers to object to the use of specific instructional materials in the public schools, with climate change and evolution clearly among the targets, is now headed to Governor Rick Scott’s desk for a signature.<\/p>\n

The bill in question is House Bill 989, which the House of Representatives passed in April 2017. A similar bill, Senate Bill 1210, was making its way through the Senate, but was abandoned in favor of HB 989, which the Senate then passed on a 19-17 vote on May 5, 2017.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the two bills submitted affidavits that complained, “I have witnessed students being taught evolution as fact … rather than theory … I have witnessed children being taught that Global Warming is a reality,” as Brandon Haught of Florida Citizens for Science, writing in the Tallahassee Democrat (April 14, 2017), observed.<\/p>\n

Haught warned there that if the bills became law, “school boards will become inundated with demands that certain books be banned and that schools must discontinue using textbooks that don’t mesh with a vocal minority’s ideological views.”<\/p>\n

Assuming that a gubernatorial veto is not forthcoming, Haught told Motherboard (May 2, 2017), it will be up to Floridians concerned with the integrity of science education “to keep an eye on your local school board.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … 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-HV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2575,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2575","url_meta":{"origin":2723,"position":0},"title":"Instructional Materials bills starting to get attention","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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 and Senate Bill 1210)\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":2723,"position":1},"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":2570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2570","url_meta":{"origin":2723,"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":2741,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":2723,"position":3},"title":"Nature notes one bad bill; no one notices the other","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The science journal Nature published an article about antiscience bills that have cropped up across America, with a special focus on our very own Sunshine State:\u00c2\u00a0Revamped 'anti-science' education bills in United States find success. The piece focuses on the instructional materials bill that pretty much sailed through the state 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":[]},{"id":2732,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2732","url_meta":{"origin":2723,"position":4},"title":"Meet your new “unbiased” textbook hearing officer: Florida creationists","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Creationists, climate change deniers and other antiscience nuts scored a major victory in the Florida legislature with the passage of the instructional materials bill. This bill, if the governor signs it, will kick wide open the door for ideological crusaders to pester their local school boards about banning or changing\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":2723,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723"}],"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=2723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2724,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions\/2724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}