{"id":2980,"date":"2017-11-28T18:33:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-28T23:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2017-11-28T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T02:08:09","slug":"evolution-complaint-in-palm-beach-county-and-other-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2980","title":{"rendered":"Evolution complaint in Palm Beach County … and other news"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>All of you really need to keep an eye on what’s going on in within your home turf. Sometimes it’s very difficult to learn what’s happening from afar, so it’s incredibly important for you to monitor your local news. As I reported earlier, an Associated Press article<\/a> revealed that there were a couple of challenges to evolution and climate change filed with local school boards. But the AP apparently missed one. Palm Beach County has been targeted:\u00c2\u00a0New law makes it legal to challenge assigned reading in schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Palm Beach County’s School District says no novel has been challenged this year, but there is currently one challenge of a science textbook that deals with evolution.
\nThat process is still playing out.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We’re in the process of learning more about that complaint. If you live in or near Palm Beach County, we could use your help.<\/p>\n

Also of note is a writer for Florida Politics who has a few keen observations about the new instructional materials law:\u00c2\u00a0Joe Henderson: Textbook challenge gives school boards more headaches<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The law opened the door widely for self-appointed watchdogs to quibble over the wording of every single line in a textbook, particularly those used to teach history and science \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing, was the idea all along.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

School boards have dealt effectively with those things over the ages. What the Legislature did, though, was legitimize anyone pushing an agenda, no matter how extreme.<\/p>\n

Yes, boards have the final say on any recommendation from the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unbiased hearing officer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but how long until someone in the Legislature decides that isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working and tries to require boards to adopt what the officer says?<\/p>\n

Then, of course, lawmakers would eventually want to dictate who is hired as that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unbiased hearing officer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

When that happens, you can hear the battle cry: Let the textbook scrubbing begin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And the National Center for Science Education is keeping tabs on the goings-on here:\u00c2\u00a0The latest from Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of you really need to keep an eye on what’s going on in within your home turf. Sometimes it’s very difficult to learn what’s happening from afar, so it’s incredibly important for you to monitor your local news. As … 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":[32,26],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-M4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1942,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1942","url_meta":{"origin":2980,"position":0},"title":"Evolution lawsuit in Palm Beach County","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There is an article today in the Sun Sentinel that starts out with this paragraph: The Palm Beach County School Board is battling claims it fails to teach evolution and so-called truths about religions, charges hurled in a lawsuit from two students and their rabbi\/attorney\/father. Unfortunately, the article is considered\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1942#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2768,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2768","url_meta":{"origin":2980,"position":1},"title":"Give the Devil his Due","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"June 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All has been very quiet concerning the odious instructional materials bill lately. The bill would allow any resident, not just parents, to protest against what's 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\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":375,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=375","url_meta":{"origin":2980,"position":2},"title":"New newspaper blog jumps in","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The St. Petersburg education blog, The Gradebook, has been tracking the state science standards story in a very dedicated way. Now the Palm Beach Post adds their voice to the blog world with their own education blog, Extra Credit. The writers promise to be all over the science standards story,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=249","url_meta":{"origin":2980,"position":3},"title":"No book ban here","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"July 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Bravo to the Palm Beach County School Board for denying a woman's request to ban about 80 books from the school system libraries. Wise and, in my opinion, easy decision. Ms. Lopez, who had not read any of the books all the way through, wanted the school district to chuck\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2857,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2857","url_meta":{"origin":2980,"position":4},"title":"Lots of news","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"There's all sorts of interesting news items related to science education lately! I'll list them here by general topic ... Instructional Materials Law From the Gainesville Sun Carl Ramey: State continues assault on public schools Equally problematic are the amendments enacted this year to Florida\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s education code; specifically, the section\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FCS in the News"","block_context":{"text":"FCS in the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=25"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":369,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=369","url_meta":{"origin":2980,"position":5},"title":"8-0","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So far, eight Florida daily newspapers have written editorials in support of evolution. None have supported \"alternatives.\" Either the reality of the situation is that obvious, or it's just a liberal media conspiracy. I'll take reality. Here's the eighth editorial, which appeared today in the Palm Beach Post. Evolution is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980"}],"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=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2984,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions\/2984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}