The bad instructional materials bills that we believe can open up the doors of our schools to grossly anti-science ideologies cruised through two committee meetings today.
The Senate Education Committee gave a favorable report on a unanimous 9-0 vote.
The House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee gave a favorable report on a unanimous 14-0 vote.
I wasn’t able to view or listen to either meeting. I hope to watch the recordings but I don’t know that I’ll have the time anytime soon. If you were able to watch, or if you can watch the recordings, I encourage you to give us a report on what happened in the comments or via email. We need to know if our concerns were brought up at all. (Links to the Senate Education Committee video can be found on this page. Links to the House PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee video can be found on this page.)
I know that it’s frustrating to lose. But this was just one round. The Senate bill still must go through the Appropriations Committee. The House bill still must go through the PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee and the Education Committee.
If our voices weren’t heard in today’s committees, then that should give us the motivation to be even louder the next time.
Contact lawmakers on the committees by both phone and email (use the above committee links). Make sure you clearly state your opposition to the bills and why you’re opposed. Emphasize the harm to science education and why our concerns are real and must NOT be dismissed as far-fetched (see our post “Nowhere in the material is a balanced discussion of the biblical explanationâ€Â for details about our issues with the bill and the evidence for our claims.) Explain to them the humiliation Florida experienced the past few times creationism became a statewide education issue.
I know we all have jobs and responsibilities at home, but is anyone possibly available to go to Tallahassee to speak at any of the future committee meetings? Our opposition has multiple representatives hard at work there. We need to have a turn at the microphone.
Use the comments section of this post. Email Florida Citizens for Science board members or give us a call. We need your help and we need to hear from you.
What are you going to do to defend science education today?
The bill, as I read it, also removes control from teachers’ hands regarding supplemental materials. This would be very problematic for me in particular, because new biological discoveries are made frequently; and my district does not purchase new materials in a timely manner. This leaves me to pull outside resources almost constantly (including but not limited to videos, journals, and posters from HHMI, NOVA, Nat Geo, Discovery, etc.). If I have to go through the review process for every new resource I introduce, I will simply have to stop using them. There are not enough hours for me to meet all the demands of teaching without this review process. Adding it would cripple me and my curriculum. (Also, I am speaking as a teacher with Biology EOC pass rates well above state average; so I’m not simply looking for an easy road.)