{"id":3403,"date":"2019-01-20T15:59:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-20T20:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2019-01-20T15:59:06","modified_gmt":"2019-01-20T20:59:06","slug":"news-roundup-1-20-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3403","title":{"rendered":"News Roundup 1\/20\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are several items in the news of interest to us here at Florida Citizens for Science. We’ll start with the budding coverage of a bill filed in our state legislature that could directly impact science education here in the Sunshine State. (See our issues page\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Controversial Theories\/Rigorous Standards\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bills 2019<\/a> for all the gory details about the bill.)<\/p>\n

From the Tampa Bay Times:\u00c2\u00a0Education bills continue to mount as Florida legislative session nears<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SB 330, by Sen. Dennis Baxley, would allow school districts to adopt their own academic standards, as long as they are more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rigorous\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than the state minimum standards. Among other things, the bill \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a return of Baxley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s SB 996 from 2018 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d calls for the teaching of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153controversial\u00e2\u20ac\u009d science theories and concepts in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153factual, objective and balanced manner.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Such language has raised concerns within the Florida Citizens for Science, which sees this measure as a way to challenge climate science and evolution without ever mentioning them by name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the National Center for Science Education:\u00c2\u00a0A new antiscience bill in Florida<\/a><\/p>\n

Although there is no indication in the bill about which “theories and concepts” are deemed to be “controversial,” much less any guidance about adjudicating disputes about which are and which are not, it is suggestive that the bill’s sole sponsor, Dennis Baxley (R-District 12), has a history of antievolution advocacy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On a different subject, news stories have been popping up about teacher shortages in Florida schools, with science and math topping the list. WUSF reports:\u00c2\u00a0Science, English, Math Teachers In Short Supply in Florida Public Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

The annual report points to issues such as a scarcity of certified teachers in subject areas such as general science, physics and chemistry when compared to fields such as elementary education. Also, it details factors such as teacher-education programs turning out relatively few science and math teachers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And, finally, we’re also interested in a bill filed in our state legislature that would mandate that all public schools offer a bible elective course. From the Orlando Sentinel:\u00c2\u00a0Bible study as mandatory elective in Florida public schools? Orlando pastor says that’s dangerous<\/a><\/p>\n

The language of the bill and Daniels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 history on the subject of religion and government was enough of a red flag for David Williamson, who is the co-founder for the Central Florida Free Thought Community for humanists and skeptics.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that the pastor representative Kim Daniels has the intention of teaching about religion objectively. I think she has to put that in that bill so that it gets voted on favorably and it passes the Florida legislature,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williamson said.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the controversial topic of evolution versus creationism in science classes as another roadblock toward making Bible classes a mandatory elective in Florida.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stay tuned for updates on these stories and more in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are several items in the news of interest to us here at Florida Citizens for Science. We’ll start with the budding coverage of a bill filed in our state legislature that could directly impact science education here in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-ST","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2993,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2993","url_meta":{"origin":3403,"position":0},"title":"Antiscience Bills Update 12\/8\/17","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a quick update on the bills we're watching in the Florida legislature. The legislative session doesn't actually kick off until Jan. 8 but bills can be pre-filed in preparation for the session and those bills can be assigned to committees and possibly even heard and voted on during committee\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":3431,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3431","url_meta":{"origin":3403,"position":1},"title":"News Roundup 2\/9\/19: Sen. Baxley takes a pounding","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Several opinion pieces were published since my last news roundup just one week ago. Every one of them tears into state senator Dennis Baxley's bill that attacks so-called \"controversial theories\" in science classrooms. If you need a primer about this bill, check out our issues page:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Controversial Theories\/Rigorous Standards\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bills 2019.\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\/2019\/02\/eastman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3456,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3456","url_meta":{"origin":3403,"position":2},"title":"Science Education not important in Florida senate","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"With an 8 to 0 vote in the Florida senate education committee yesterday, SB 770 cleared its first hurdle after undergoing several changes. Despite an overhaul of the bill and a couple of amendments tacked on, our key concern about science education requirements for graduation getting sliced and diced is\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\/2019\/03\/diploma.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/diploma.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/diploma.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3453,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3453","url_meta":{"origin":3403,"position":3},"title":"News & Updates 3\/17\/19","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"We're monitoring several bills in our state legislature that could negatively impact science education. The good news is that so far there has been very little movement. One has been scheduled for a committee hearing and others have gotten some press. But the session is still quite young and we\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2951,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2951","url_meta":{"origin":3403,"position":4},"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":3395,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3395","url_meta":{"origin":3403,"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\/3403"}],"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=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3404,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions\/3404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}