{"id":2756,"date":"2017-06-01T09:39:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T13:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2756"},"modified":"2017-06-01T09:39:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T13:39:30","slug":"collier-county-the-epicenter-of-textbook-calamity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2756","title":{"rendered":"Collier County: the epicenter of textbook calamity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Seal_of_Collier_County,_Florida\"<\/a>Fresh off their success in the Florida legislature where their instructional materials bill passed, the Florida Citizens’ Alliance is now causing migraine headaches on their home turf:\u00c2\u00a0Group sues Collier County schools over textbook selection<\/a> —<\/p>\n

Three parents sued the Collier County School Board on Wednesday over new textbooks slated for public classrooms next fall.<\/p>\n

Along with factual errors, flaws and omissions, the parents said in the court filing, the board selects books and reviews the materials “behind closed doors to the exclusion of the public.”<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

They have identified 222 words and passages they think are problematic in the incoming textbooks, from upper-level law and history books to elementary social studies materials.<\/p>\n

School Board attorneys declined to comment because they haven’t had time to read through the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

But board member Eric Carter said most of the issues parents have flagged are either easily vetted or inherently subjective.<\/p>\n

He cited one complaint a parent made, arguing that women did not fight in the Revolutionary War. Carter quickly referred to the night of Nov. 16, 1776, when Margaret Corbin took a bullet to the shoulder while she was stuffing cannons for colonial residents.<\/p>\n

“That took three minutes on Google,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s also a story on a Collier TV station:\u00c2\u00a0Parents suing Collier school board over textbook purchases<\/a> —<\/p>\n

A handful of parents will be given 10 minutes each to explain what they found wrong with each book at Thursday’s special school board hearing, but they said that’s not enough time.<\/p>\n

“To give a parent who spent 20 hours with a textbook finding these kinds of problems 10 minutes to educate our school board members on it is just a travesty,” [Florida Citizens’ Alliance’s Keith] Flaugh said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But there’s a voice of reason in the letters to the editor section of the newspaper<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Textbooks have already been scrutinized and approved for adoption by subject level experts at the state Department of Education before they are reviewed locally. Local level review committees also are selected on the basis of their knowledge and experience in the subject area that they are reviewing.<\/p>\n

After months of work, the selected texts are now being challenged at the local level because the review committees did not have the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153correct\u00e2\u20ac\u009d political makeup. Seven \u00e2\u20ac\u0153concerned citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with ties to ultra-conservative organizations founded by School Board member Erika Donalds are now moving their objections to a public hearing at a special board meeting Thursday.<\/p>\n

All of these \u00e2\u20ac\u0153concerned citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had the opportunity to volunteer their time to serve as members of the review committees of the textbooks that they object to, but none of them submitted a corresponding application.<\/p>\n

These citizens would be better off spending their time volunteering in classrooms than spending their time analyzing the members of the review committees and comparing them with voting records. Is that the mentality we want in our school district?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can see the long list of complaints the Alliance has about the textbooks here<\/a>. They stuck with law and U.S. history books, so there are no mentions of evolution or climate change … this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh off their success in the Florida legislature where their instructional materials bill passed, the Florida Citizens’ Alliance is now causing migraine headaches on their home turf:\u00c2\u00a0Group sues Collier County schools over textbook selection — Three parents sued the Collier … 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":[26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Is","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3306,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3306","url_meta":{"origin":2756,"position":0},"title":"Collier County textbook hearing: 30 complaints about evolution & climate change","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Heads up, folks. Collier County\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s official textbook hearing will be on Monday, June 18, and the public is invited to attend and be heard. Go to the instructional materials website where the guidelines for the meeting and the long list on citizen complaints against evolution and climate change being in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3306#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3312,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3312","url_meta":{"origin":2756,"position":1},"title":"Road trip to Collier County: Speaking up for science education","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be on the road tomorrow morning (Monday) headed to Naples on a mission to help speak up for science education. I hope to see some of you folks there so we can finally meet in person. Why do science defenders need to converge on Collier County? Because a coordinated\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3312#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3322,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3322","url_meta":{"origin":2756,"position":2},"title":"News Roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a quick roundup of recent news articles associated with current events Florida Citizens for Science has been involved in. Orlando Sentinel: Director stands up for his Christian voucher schools The director of three private Christian schools that accept state scholarships takes issue with Sentinel columnist Lauren Ritchie who\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3322#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3270,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3270","url_meta":{"origin":2756,"position":3},"title":"Collier County science textbook objections: “You profess to be a Christian”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Science textbooks are still an issue here in Florida. Many school districts are working their way through the lengthy process of reviewing and adopting new science books for their classrooms. And there are still a few hot spots of controversy that we need to keep an eye on. For instance:\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":3274,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3274","url_meta":{"origin":2756,"position":4},"title":"Press Release: Balancing Evolution & Creationism in Schools Unconstitutional","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Citizens for Science News Release (May 13, 2018) --------------------------------------------- BALANCING EVOLUTION AND CREATIONISM IN SCHOOLS UNCONSTITUTIONAL Attempts to alter science textbooks in Collier, Martin and Nassau Counties are a waste of school boards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time, money and could lead to costly lawsuits --------------------------------------------- Contact: Brandon Haught \/\u00c2\u00a0bhaught@flascience.org \/ www.flascience.org Citizens\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3280,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3280","url_meta":{"origin":2756,"position":5},"title":"Collier County: science textbooks promote “utter nonsense”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some media outlets are now reporting on the kerfuffle the Florida Citizens' Alliance is causing over science textbooks under consideration for purchase by the Collier County school board. The most important report is the Tampa Bay Times' Gradebook Blog podcast:\u00c2\u00a0Inside the debate over Florida textbooks. It's well worth your time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Textbooks"","block_context":{"text":"Textbooks","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=26"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/christian-ed.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756"}],"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=2756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2756\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}