{"id":519,"date":"2008-03-28T05:38:29","date_gmt":"2008-03-28T10:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=519"},"modified":"2008-08-31T16:35:52","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T20:35:52","slug":"friday-morning-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=519","title":{"rendered":"Friday morning news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Online: Academic Anarchy<\/a><\/p>\n

What Stein really meant to say is that the bill insulates teachers from being held accountable for their speech. One wonders whether Florida’s citizens really desire that public-school teachers have that type of protection, one to which few private-sector workers are entitled (and for good reason).<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Principals are accountable to the government for the academic performance of their students, and yet the government is proposing another bill that will severely hamper the management flexibility of principals. This is accountability without autonomy, and it’s a recipe for failure.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In this particular case, Floridians should be especially wary. Academic-freedom bills, of all stripes, are generally terrible things. They proclaim to protect a persecuted class, but rarely is that verifiable.<\/p>\n

The Storms and Hays proposal purports to shield public-school teachers who are vilified for questioning evolution’s tenets. But a significant number of such teachers simply doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n

And what’s more, public-school educators, especially the most incompetent ones, already receive from their unions more job protection than they need or deserve.<\/p>\n

The “Academic Freedom Act” is thoroughly flawed and is deserving of deft dismissal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

St. Petersburg Times: Floridians seem content in a state of ignorance<\/a><\/p>\n

Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859; it wasn’t until this February that Florida’s state Board of Education voted to allow teachers to utter the word “evolution.” But Sen. Ronda Storms, ever a vigilant foe of egghead secularism, has filed a bill to strike a blow for biblical science.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“I would love to know what the ‘scientific alternatives’ are,” says Joe Travis, evolutionary biologist and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at FSU. “I don’t know of any. Not unless I change my definition of ‘science’ to include the supernatural.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Storms, Wise et al. insist their bill is also about freedom of speech. Why not throw the Word of God up against Darwin in biology class? Never mind that Genesis has differing accounts (Gen. 1:1-2:4 and 2:5-24 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d check it out) of the creation. Never mind that knowledge of ancient Hebrew myth won’t go far in getting you a job at Scripps or Torrey Pines. Speaker of the House Marco Rubio claims he wants Florida to become the “Silicon Valley” of energy diversification and biotech industry. But he told the Florida Baptist Witness newspaper, “I don’t want a school system that teaches kids that what they’re learning at home is wrong.”<\/p>\n

Which impulse will win out with the Republican leadership, Sunshine Silicon or Ain’t Kin to No Monkey? Here’s a hint: Check the poll numbers above. Our students don’t need no stinking science. They’ll have God. He’ll tell them all they need to know. And if they ever travel beyond the Floridian Theocracy, He’ll protect them from falling off the edge of the Earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Online: Academic Anarchy What Stein really meant to say is that the bill insulates teachers from being held accountable for their speech. One wonders whether Florida’s citizens really desire that public-school teachers have that type of protection, one … 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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-8n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":586,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=586","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":0},"title":"Other states’ struggles","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Church Executive News writes about the deceptively-named \"academic freedom\" bills in other states. Interesting how so many religious organizations are so interested in these bills when the bills are supposedly not about religion. The Louisiana bill (SB 733) -- which passed the state Senate 35-0 April 28 and now\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 6 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 6 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=586#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":825,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=825","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":1},"title":"Scientific American","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, Scientific American's January issue is awesome. It's an issue devoted to evolution. One of the several articles in there is The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom. Florida gets a number of mentions in there. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Academic freedom\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was the creationist catchphrase of choice in 2008: the Louisiana Science\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 8 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=825#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":526,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=526","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":2},"title":"Are the fish biting?","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been aware that those in support of the creationism bills (so-called \"academic freedom\" bills) have been fishing for Florida teachers who feel they've been persecuted in some way for teaching information contrary to evolution. The Florida Family Policy Counsel first put out this call in late March. One of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=535","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":3},"title":"Media Alert","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The following two media alerts are being sent out to news outlets statewide: First one is notice of a press conference and the second is a notice of a Public Roundtable Discussion. Reporters are encouraged to visit the Florida Citizens for Science Media Page. ** NEWS CONFERENCE \u00e2\u20ac\u201c MONDAY 4\/14\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=570","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":4},"title":"Asking for prayers … but it’s not about religion","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The deceptively named \"academic freedom\" bills' sponsors have gone to great lengths to claim the bills have nothing to do with religion. But who out there is supporting these bills and wants to see them pass? The Florida Baptist Witness, of course. And the Florida Prayer Network is involved now,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":572,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=572","url_meta":{"origin":519,"position":5},"title":"Ball in the House’s court now","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Recap: The House and Senate have different versions of the deceptively named \"academic freedom\" bills. The Senate approved their version and shipped it to the House. The House gutted the Senate version and replaced it with their own entirely different version. They then shipped it back to the Senate. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519"}],"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=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}