{"id":3374,"date":"2018-11-11T11:15:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T16:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3374"},"modified":"2018-11-11T11:15:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T16:15:03","slug":"its-going-to-be-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3374","title":{"rendered":"It’s Going to be Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the dust settles from the mid-term elections, we’re starting to see what is in store for science education and education in general here in the Sunshine State. It’s going to be ugly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In preparation for the next Florida legislative session, due to start March 5, 2019, House and Senate committees are taking shape. The first shot aimed at public education is who has been selected to chair the House education committee. Read a little about<\/a> “Rep. Jennifer Sullivan, a Mount Dora Republican who has championed such issues as home schooling and tax credit scholarships, and has been an ally to conservative education groups and their concerns.” She was home-schooled, presumably having never sat in a public school classroom, and she is earning a degree from Liberty University online,\u00c2\u00a0an evangelical Christian university in Virginia. She also was active in TeenPact<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Can you see where this next state legislative session is headed?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sen. Dennis Baxley easily won reelection<\/a>. Baxley, “a Southern Baptist, said his faith is the foundation of his public service<\/a> and proposed that ‘controversial theories’ such as evolution be taught in a ‘balanced’ manner.” Here is our analysis and history<\/a> of that controversial theories bill. Do you think we’ll see that bill or something similar again?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Byron Donalds also won reelection<\/a>. He “will continue to focus on education issues in Tallahassee after winning re-election in House District 80 Tuesday night.” He was a driving force behind bills that would change how schools’ instructional materials are selected and challenged<\/a>. One of those bills became law and resulted in lots of headaches for school boards across the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Kim Daniels also won reelection<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0Daniels was a sponsor of the Religious Expression in Schools law<\/a> that we here at Florida Citizens for Science opposed in 2017. She was also responsible for the In God We Trust law that requires all Florida public schools to prominently display that motto.<\/p>\n

And we know that the Florida Citizens’ Alliance is on their conservative crusade, as we noted a little while ago<\/a>. “Prominent on [Florida Citizens\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Alliance\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] expanded menu of concerns was climate change, and humanity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presumed role in driving it. [\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6] ‘Unfortunately, what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become is indoctrination and not education. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s our major problem,'”<\/p>\n

Are you ready to get to work?<\/h2>\n

We appreciate when you like and share our social media posts. That helps with awareness, so please keep doing so. But if that’s all you’re doing, then we’re in trouble. We need to take your energy that went into those incredibly tight, recent elections that are so close that they’re going into recount and focus it on standing firm in defense of science education in the coming months. There is no doubt that we’re going to be very busy soon. We need your advice, your effort, your time, your commitment to science education, your connections, and your experience. Without your participation in this fight, science education, and Florida education in general, will erode and this state’s students will pay the price.<\/p>\n

Contact us<\/a>. Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the dust settles from the mid-term elections, we’re starting to see what is in store for science education and education in general here in the Sunshine State. It’s going to be ugly. In preparation for the next Florida legislative … 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":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Sq","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3380,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3380","url_meta":{"origin":3374,"position":0},"title":"Textbook censoring, global warming denying creationists have been given the keys","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida Governor-elect Ron DeSantis released the names of those who will be on his education transition committee. Included is a representative from the textbook-censoring, global warming denying, creationist outfit Florida Citizens Alliance. Among the participants are former Brevard County superintendent Desmond Blackburn, Step Up for Students founder John Kirtley, Charter\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/collier-flaugh-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1667,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1667","url_meta":{"origin":3374,"position":1},"title":"Virtual education redux","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've written plenty about the good, bad and ugly of virtual education. I'm glad that some folk appear to be catching on to the fact that it's not the grand education solution, as demonstrated to some extent in this Ocala Star-Banner article: Virtual schools help some students get ahead. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2511,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2511","url_meta":{"origin":3374,"position":2},"title":"New lawmakers briefed on education","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Newly elected Florida legislators attended a briefing intended to give them an overview of what their role is in matters of education. The session was filmed and is available for viewing:\u00c2\u00a012\/6\/16 House \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Legislator University\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Training: An Overview of School Accountability. Quite of bit of time was spent discussing the process\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2511#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2038,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2038","url_meta":{"origin":3374,"position":3},"title":"Accountability in voucher schools","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Companion bills in the state legislature are attempting to expand a school voucher program. The House bill recently got a green light from one of its committee stops, but news accounts point out that the House version may not quite match the version in the Senate. The House bill gives\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 10 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 10 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2038#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2631,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2631","url_meta":{"origin":3374,"position":4},"title":"It’s unanimous … Florida lawmakers disregard danger to science education","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The bad instructional materials bills that we believe can open up the doors of our schools to grossly anti-science ideologies cruised through two committee meetings today. The Senate Education Committee gave a favorable report on a unanimous 9-0 vote. The House\u00c2\u00a0PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee gave a favorable report on a unanimous\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":342,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=342","url_meta":{"origin":3374,"position":5},"title":"New education commissioner stays mum","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida has a new education commissioner, Eric J. Smith. The St. Petersburg Times interviewd him and slipped in a question about the controversy over the new draft science standards. Smith essentially avoided the question, which is not a good sign. Perhaps he just doesn't want to make waves before he's\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374"}],"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=3374"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3378,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3374\/revisions\/3378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}