Voucher and textbook bill updates

Two bills that we’re watching in the state legislature — voucher expansion and changes to the way textbooks are selected — are off to strong starts. They’re breezing right through committee stops. Despite that fast start, I hold out hope and bet a cold Diet Mt. Dew that neither will cross the finish line.

I have a few observations to fire off real quick:

I’m happy to see that some of our determined efforts to get a voice in these debates are paying off to a small extent. The Orlando Sentinel and the Tampa Bay Times have posted items on their education blogs. With any luck, some of that will trickle into stories that will actually see print and a wider audience. I’m continuing to put a bug in the ears of other reporters.

One argument that I’ve heard in support of expansion of the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship is that the tax dollars are not going to private schools.  Rather, the money is going to the students (meaning their parents). Disingenuous, don’t you think? That feeds into the line of thinking that all parents are education experts or at least great shoppers in the education marketplace. “Parents know best” is an irresponsible argument. Paul Cottle at his blog Bridge to Tomorrow explains quite clearly: “parents are not always competent to decide what preparation their own children need for the society of the future.  In fact, our society is presently experiencing a rapid change in its economic structure that many parents are finding confusing and intimidating.” Some parents find many elements of science education frightening and/or at odds with their personal ideologies. As I’ve mentioned before, these parents purposely seek out private schools that cater to those fears and beliefs. Their determination to hold on to what they believe is true and pass it along to their children is a gross injustice that closes doors in the kids’ futures. It’s impossible to determine how many future scientists we lose because of this. The bottom line is that tax dollars are flowing to schools that don’t teach real science. Accountability is sorely needed!

Moving on to the textbook bill, I want to point out a minor change that was made. An amendment was filed to add a few words to the House version that seem innocuous. The original language says:

Any instructional materials recommended by each reviewer for use in the schools must be, to the satisfaction of each reviewer, accurate, objective, current, and suited to the needs and comprehension of students at their respective grade levels.

The approved additions are in bold:

Any instructional materials recommended by each reviewer for use in the schools must be, to the satisfaction of each reviewer, accurate, objective, balanced, noninflammatory, fact-based, current, and suited to the needs and comprehension of students at their respective grade levels.

I don’t want to read too much into the addition of a few simple words, but some of these words send up little red flags to me.  A reviewer could very well see “balanced” as a mandate to want “other theories” alongside evolution. The devil is in the details, folks.