{"id":2793,"date":"2017-06-26T23:39:11","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T03:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2017-06-27T07:41:22","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T11:41:22","slug":"the-fight-will-now-be-won-or-lost-where-you-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2793","title":{"rendered":"The fight will now be won or lost where you live."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Unfortunately, the devious Instructional Materials bill, which creationists and climate change deniers absolutely love, is now signed into law by Governor Rick Scott<\/a>. This means our fight is only just now beginning. Each and every one of us has to be on alert. You must keep an eye on your local school board and everyone who brings forth a complaint about textbooks. If you don’t, we truly lose. At this point the fight is at the local level. If you’re not there and willing to stand up for sound science education, then we’re done.<\/p>\n

Are you ready?<\/p>\n

Edited to add: If you’re not familiar with this new law, please read through our Instructional Materials bill blog category<\/a>. In a nutshell, the new law will allow any resident, not just parents, to protest against what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s found in textbooks, including coverage of evolution, climate change, vaccines, etc. On top of that, school districts must appoint a hearing officer to consider such complaints. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad news all around.<\/p>\n

To make things worse, a separate bill was signed into law earlier concerning Religious Liberties in schools. Part of that new law states: “A school district may not discriminate against a student, parent, or school personnel on the basis of a religious viewpoint or religious expression.” We already know for a fact that at least one organization will combine both laws in their crusade against what they view as in balanced inaccuracies in Florida textbooks. The group’s leaders have gone on the record with their intentions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“[Florida Citizens’ Alliance’s Keith] Flaugh said his group will use it in conjunction with the instructional materials bill to contest textbooks that demonstrate ‘bias toward Islam and seldom mention Christianity,’ and promote those that push for a Christian view of the origins of life. ‘Darwin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theory is a theory, and the biblical view is a theory, and our kids should be taught both in a balanced way,’ he said.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unfortunately, the devious Instructional Materials bill, which creationists and climate change deniers absolutely love, is now signed into law by Governor Rick Scott. This means our fight is only just now beginning. Each and every one of us has 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":[32,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-J3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2924,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2924","url_meta":{"origin":2793,"position":0},"title":"David against the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Goliath","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida's new Instructional Materials law is now featured in an article in the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Explorer:\u00c2\u00a0Science Curricula Under Threat? The problem, according to those who think there is one, is in the first sentence of Florida House Bill 989. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6allowing a resident of a county 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":2658,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2658","url_meta":{"origin":2793,"position":1},"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":[]},{"id":2725,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2725","url_meta":{"origin":2793,"position":2},"title":"Creationist-enabling bill passes; what can you do now?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Citizens for Science membership is dismayed that House Bill 989, a proposed law that will affect how instructional materials for our schools are selected and challenged, passed its final vote in the Senate 19 to 17. We believe that should this bill become law with the governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s signature,\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\/2015\/12\/textbookskulls-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2737,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2737","url_meta":{"origin":2793,"position":3},"title":"Textbook battles: a glimpse into the future","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the most controversial issues in recent years when it comes to textbooks used in Florida schools is the coverage of religion in history books. The topic was the spark that started the whole instructional materials bills fiasco we're now facing. And the subject is obviously still white hot.\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":2849,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2849","url_meta":{"origin":2793,"position":4},"title":"This is not “needless fretting”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"An editorial was published in a few papers recently, including the Gainesville Sun, opining that Florida's new instructional materials law isn't something to get all worked up about:\u00c2\u00a0Needless fretting over textbook law. The doomsdayers among us believe Scott and the measure\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supporters have thrust open an educational Pandora\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s box, exposing\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":3435,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3435","url_meta":{"origin":2793,"position":5},"title":"New Instructional Materials bill includes “controversial issues” requirement","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A bill filed Friday in the Florida Legislature, House Bill 855, proposes making a slew of changes to instructional materials laws, tackling issues like pornography and sex education. Science is not directly mentioned in the bill, but there are two sections that can definitely impact science materials. One proposal is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793"}],"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=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}