Anti-science bills are popping up like daisies after a spring shower. Five bills in four states have been introduced with the opening of state legislatures across the United States. All of the bills are aimed at undermining the teaching of biology and physical science — specifically, evolution and climate change — in public schools. Oklahoma has two bills in the hopper, Colorado, Missouri and Montana have one each.
[,,,]
"It is almost identical language in all of the bills," said Rosenau. "It's a package of bills that we've been tracking since the 2004 'Academic Freedom' bill." That bill, which was passed into law, was based on language generated by the Discovery Institute, which has long pushed for the inclusion of biblical creationism and pseudo-scientific "intelligent design" into science classes in public schools.
[,,,]
On the other hand the bills would create problems for administrators and teachers, said Eric Feaver, president of the Montana Education Association and the Montana Federation of Teachers.
“It affects the supervisors of the schools,” said Feaver, because they would not be able to stop the teaching of religion disguised as science. “Teachers who teach creationism would be immune to punishment.” That basically undermines school supervisors, he said
[,,,]
A federal court ruled in 2005 that the teaching of intelligent design was in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Since that time, efforts to undermine public school science have been forced to attempt the "academic freedom" subterfuge, explained Eugenie C. Scott, executive director of the NCSE.
Anti-Science Bills Weighed in Four States : Discovery News
No comments:
Post a Comment