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Anti-Science Bills Weighed in Four States

Jan 28, 2013 06:40 AM ET // by Larry O'Hanlon

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.

Bills like these pop up a lot, says evolutionary biologist Josh Rosenau, who works on policy issues for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). But in recent years the language of the bills has been converging, suggesting that it is essentially the same bill being re-introduced around the country, rather than something original to each state.

"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.

The academic freedom approach sounds good because it seems to protect students and teachers from being expelled if they want to argue about creationism, deny climate science, or refer to stem cell research in the classroom. The only catch, said Rosenau, is that it's a solution in search of a problem.

"No one has been expelled," said Rosenau.

Read the rest here.

1 member likes this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Idaho Spud on January 28, 2013 at 11:50am

Thanks for posting this Steph. I read it an hour ago and was considering posting it myself.

They never quit do they?

Permalink Reply by matthew greenberg on January 28, 2013 at 12:11pm

every January these pop up like whack a moles. problem is every now and again some pass - see Louisiana and Tennessee. i'm not sure there's another part of politics that makes me this angry. as an Atheist and a believer in reality this is an affront to my sensibilities.

there's another angle here too. school vouchers allow public funds to flow into many private/religious schools that actively teach creationism and deny wholeheartedly evolution, climate change, etc. this creates a new generation of freakazoids who will push this stuff into the coming decades.

Permalink Reply by Idaho Spud on January 28, 2013 at 12:40pm

It sometimes gets depressing, but thanks for the smile with your "whack a moles" comment :)

Permalink Reply by Humble Pie on January 28, 2013 at 12:36pm

Straight from the Santorum amendment, "Where topics are taught that may generate controversy (such as biological evolution), the curriculum should help students to understand the full range of scientific views that exist, why such topics may generate controversy, and how scientific discoveries can profoundly affect society."

I could work with this, I think. The topic generates controversy because it fundamentally disproves the basis for belief in a creator deity, and profoundly affects society because billions still cling to this Paleolithic belief. Sounds good to me! Let's put THAT in schools.

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