The battle of evolution is going to come up sometime this year, and they want to be ready. Florida's Board of Education voted to include evolution, but the fight is not over here. Not by a long shot. Our state Speaker of the House, Marco Rubio, has already said how he might fix the issues.
Florida House Speaker may consider bill to protect teachers who criticize evolution.TALLAHASSEE (FBW) – An evolution compromise approved on Feb. 19 by the State Board of Education was the best that could be achieved in that body but legislative action to protect academic freedom of teachers offering criticisms of Darwinian evolution is possible, House Speaker Marco Rubio told Florida Baptist Witness in a Feb. 20 interview.
A race in the Ft. Worth, Texas, area...a race for the Texas Board of Education, is being closely watched. At stake is what will be taught in the public schools.
Race could tilt state Board of Education in Social Conservatives' favor.AUSTIN – Social conservatives are moving to secure their first majority on the politically divided State Board of Education, backing an avowed creation-science supporter against a veteran Republican board member in a closely watched Fort Worth-area race.
Board member Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, is being challenged in the GOP primary by Cleburne urologist Barney Maddox, a critic of the theory of evolution who calls it a "myth" on a creation science Web site and who once testified that Texas schoolchildren are "brainwashed" into believing in evolution.
....There is no Democratic opponent in the general election, so if Dr. Maddox won the primary, it would hand social and religious conservatives a majority on the board and potentially trigger an ideological shift affecting textbook selection and the curriculum taught in public schools.
"There is already a seven-member bloc from the far right on the board, and their ability to grow that margin by one could hasten the trend we are already seeing of political ideology taking precedence over needs of our children and their future," said Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network.
Texas and Florida schools together buy about 18 per cent of all textbooks. Lawrence Lerner, a science-curriculum expert at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education watchdog. "If they want creationism in their textbooks, Wyoming may not have a choice."
Both states seem to just ignore a court ruling.
On Darwin's Birthday, Dover Still Isn't Over Intelligent design has been legally classified as religion, and therefore unsuitable for school, during the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover case.
....."Scientists are nearly unanimous in saying that evolution deserves an exclusive presence in science classrooms.
"There's a whole idea that there is a controversy, but in the scientific community there's no controversy," said Jay Labov, co-author of a recent National Academy of Sciences report on evolution. "The evidence is overwhelming. It's the highest level of evidence that's able to explain and predict numerous physical observations. It's been born out in biochemistry and paleontology. In addition to biology, the Earth and physical sciences support it."
Here is the
Dover Ruling.Will be interested to see how the Ft. Worth election goes. Florida's decision was made, but it was made by adding words to
placate the religious right.I think the fact that Texas and Florida are so stubbornly pursuing this is a testament to the ongoing "power" of George W. and Jeb Bush. Their power may be in fragments now, but it still there in these two states. They are very vocal, and they seldom take no for an answer.
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