{"id":2962,"date":"2017-11-24T09:07:48","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T14:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2962"},"modified":"2017-11-24T09:07:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T14:07:48","slug":"floridas-bible-belt-runs-the-show-in-tallahassee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2962","title":{"rendered":"“Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bible belt runs the show in Tallahassee”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most Floridians are still enjoying their turkey eating and deal hunting and so not much is developing concerning the filing in our state legislature of an “academic freedom act” bill by Sen. Dennis Baxley. It was introduced quietly last Friday and as soon as I was alerted to it I spread the word to education reporters across the state. But it’s Thanksgiving week and so many reporters are enjoying a few days off and I presume Baxley is unavailable for comment anyway. So, we won’t see any Baxley quotes or in-depth reporting for a while yet. Nonetheless, the Orlando Sentinel did get us started with a quick story, as I posted about earlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Sun-Sentinel columnist Fred Grimm wasted no time tearing into the bill along with other past creationist shenanigans in his piece:\u00c2\u00a0Darwin deniers inject religiosity into Florida biology classes<\/a>. Here’s just a couple of samples of his take.<\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that damned Darwinian theory of natural selection that has these activists frothing. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what inspired Ocala state Sen. Dennis Baxley, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition of Florida, to introduce yet another bill last week designed to muddle science education in Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s public schools. Baxley filed legislation that require \u00e2\u20ac\u0153controversial theories and concepts must be taught in a factual, objective and balanced manner.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That same coded language has shown up in legislation in other southern states where lawmakers are intent on injecting ol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time religion into biology lesson plans.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

But thanks to the magic of gerrymandering, Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bible belt runs the show in Tallahassee. God and guns are our priorities. (The Florida Citizens Alliance website also complains, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our kids are being indoctrinated in our public schools and being taught that our 2nd Amendment right to self-defense is outdated. They are being taught to support gun control and depend on government to protect them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d)<\/p>\n

Except this kind of civic leadership leaves Florida with an intellectual contradiction. Even while we support medical researchers worried about the evolution of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and astronomers who measure distances by millions of light years, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got politicians wanting Florida school children taught that our entire biosphere clocks in at just under 7,000 years old.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

But I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bet against Sen. Baxley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bill. The chairman of the Governmental Oversight and Accountability has real power in Tallahassee. Back in 2005, as a member of the House of Representatives, he was co-sponsor of Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infamous Stand Your Ground legislation. Earlier this year, he pushed through a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153religious expressions\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bill, giving public school students the right to express religious beliefs in school assignments, wear religious clothing and jewelry to school and to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pray or engage in and organize religious activities before, during and after the school day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Go read the whole thing for yourself. It’s definitely educational.<\/p>\n

What amazes me is that the Alliance has yet to say anything about the bill or the negative response to it yet. Interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most Floridians are still enjoying their turkey eating and deal hunting and so not much is developing concerning the filing in our state legislature of an “academic freedom act” bill by Sen. Dennis Baxley. It was introduced quietly last Friday … 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":[34],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-LM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2530,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2530","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":0},"title":"Baxley and the Religious Liberties Act","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I told you about the\u00c2\u00a0\"Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act\" (House Bill 303) filed in the Florida house and my concerns with it. Today, a companion bill was filed in the senate: Senate Bill 436. It's a duplicate of the house bill. I've seen troublesome bills in past\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2955,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2955","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":1},"title":"The controversy “will never be over”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel's School Zone blog posted a short story about the new \"controversial theories\" bill recently filed by Sen. Dennis Baxley:\u00c2\u00a0Sen. Baxley files school bill to require 'controversial' science topics be taught in 'balanced' way. State Sen. Dennis Baxley, who once said controversy about evolution being taught in public\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Controversial Theories bill 2017\/18"","block_context":{"text":"Controversial Theories bill 2017\/18","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2951,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2951","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":2},"title":"“Controversial theories” science education bill filed in Florida senate","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a live one. This past Friday Sen. Dennis Baxley filed a bill in our state legislature concerning public education. Senate Bill 966\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s purpose is to revise \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards; providing that such standards are the minimum baseline core content standards for K-12 public schools.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Controversial Theories bill 2017\/18"","block_context":{"text":"Controversial Theories bill 2017\/18","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=34"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2534,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2534","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":3},"title":"Baxley comments on school Religious Liberties bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the first public comment Sen. Dennis Baxley has made concerning the\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he and Rep. Kim Daniels filed in their respective chambers:\u00c2\u00a0Florida Senate to consider public school \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcreligious liberties\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bill The bill would allow religious clothing and jewelry. It would also allow \u00e2\u20ac\u0153religious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religious Liberties Act 2017"","block_context":{"text":"Religious Liberties Act 2017","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=33"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3423,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3423","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":4},"title":"News Roundup 2\/2\/19: Controversial Theories in Science bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"There was quite a flurry of news earlier this week about the bill filed in the state senate that would allow Florida school districts to create\/adopt their own sets of academic standards as long as they are equally or more rigorous than the state's standards. The focus of all of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3395,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3395","url_meta":{"origin":2962,"position":5},"title":"“Controversial Theories” bill returns to Florida senate","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A bill was pre-filed for the 2019 legislative session in the Florida senate that would impact the standards for all academic subjects, especially science. The bill proposes allowing school districts to adopt their own sets of educational standards if they are equal to or more rigorous than the state's educational\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Controversial Theories bill 2019"","block_context":{"text":"Controversial Theories bill 2019","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=36"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962"}],"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=2962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2963,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2962\/revisions\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}