March 16th, 2012 Bob
Anti-evolution bills in Oklahoma Legislature 2012
HB1551 passes the House
This is a caryover bill from last year. Arguments against the bill are the same as those for SB1742, below. See thishandout from last year for more information.
HB1551, “Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act”, passed the House on March 15. The vote was 56-12. The emergency clause failed by a vote of 45-14. The bill now goes to the Senate where it will likely be sent to the Senate Education Committee.
Here is the contact information for the committee:
John Ford, Chair, 521-5634, fordj@oksenate.gov
Gary Stanislawski, Vice Chair, 521-5624, stanislawski@oksenate.gov
Cliff Branan, 521-5543, branan@oksenate.gov
Josh Brecheen, 521-5586, brecheen@oksenate.gov
Kim David, 521-5622, david@oksenate.gov
Judy Eason McIntyre, 521-5598, easonmcintyre@oksenate.gov
Earl Garrison, 521-5533, whitep@oksenate.gov
Jim Halligan, 521-5572, halligan@oksenate.gov
David Holt, 521-5636, holt@oksenate.gov
Clark Jolley, 521-5622, jolley@oksenate.gov
Charlie Laster, 521-5539, laster@oksenate.gov
Richard Lerblance, 521-5604, lerblance@oksenate.gov
Mike Mazzei, 521-5675, mazzei@oksenate.gov
Jonathan Nichols, 521-5535, nichols@oksenate.gov
Susan Paddack, 521-5541, paddack@oksenate.gov
Jim Reynolds, 521-5522, reynolds@oksenate.gov
John Sparks, 521-5553, sparks@oksenate.gov
Please feel free to contact the committee and let them know your opposition to the bill.
An Op-Ed by Doug Mock in response to a previous creationist op-ed was published in the March 16 Oklahoman.
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March 16th, 2012 Bob
ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO IN OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 1742 — one of two bills attacking the teaching of evolution and of climate change active in the Oklahoma legislature during 2012 — is dead, having died in committee on March 1, 2012, when a deadline for bills in the senate to be reported from their committees passed. The other bill, House Bill 1551, remains active, having been passed by the House Common Education Committee on February 21, 2012; HB 1551 appears not to have been scheduled for a floor vote in the House yet.
SB 1742 was modeled in part on the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, passed and enacted in 2008 as Louisiana Revised Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1; indeed, the bill itself declares, “This act is modeled on a Louisiana law which has not been invalidated by the highest court of the State of Louisiana or a federal district court.” Its sole sponsor was Josh Brecheen (R-District 6), who described a previous legislative effort of his as “requiring every publically funded Oklahoma school to teach the debate of creation vs. evolution.”
For NCSE’s previous coverage of events in Oklahoma, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/oklahoma
CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
“After many years in which evolution was the most contentious issue in science education, climate change is now the battle du jour in school districts across the country,” the Wall Street Journal (March 11, 2012) reports. And the battle is likely to heighten with the release, expected in April 2012, of a draft of a new set of model science standards based on the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education; global climate change is a component of one of the Framework’s core ideas.
“Most climate experts accept those notions as settled science. But they are still debated by some scientists, helping to fuel conflicts between parents and teachers,” the Wall Street Journal observes, citing recent controversies in Portola Valley, California, and Clifton Park, New York, over the teaching of climate change. NCSE’s executive director Eugenie C. Scott told the newspaper that like evolution, climate change is “settled science,” adding, “We shouldn’t fight the culture wars in the high-school classroom.”
States will individually decide whether or not to adopt the new standards. But the Wall Street Journal predicts that “the approach to climate change could be a sticking point for some states,” citing South Dakota’s legislative resolution that climate change should be taught as a “theory rather than a proven fact.” Martin Storksdieck at the National Research Council replied that students would be misled by such a pedagogical approach: “What would be conveyed to them is not how science works—it’s how politics works.”
For the story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), visit:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304537904577275401501628534.html
For A Framework for K-12 Science Education, visit:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165
For NCSE’s illustrative list of recent controversies over climate
change education, visit:
http://ncse.com/climate/denial/denial-affecting-education
VOICES FOR CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION
NCSE is pleased to announce the debut of a new resource in the climate change section of its website: “Voices for climate change education.” Following the model of Voices for Evolution, NCSE’s unique collection of organizational statements endorsing the teaching of evolution, “Voices for climate change education” assembles organizational statements endorsing the teaching of climate change. Included so far are extracts from the National Research Council, the US Global Change Research Program, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the American Geological Institute, the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Chemical Society, and UNESCO. The full text of these statements will be added in the future. So will further organizational statements endorsing the teaching of climate change—so if you spot any, be sure to let NCSE know!
For “Voices for climate change education,” visit:
http://ncse.com/climate/taking-action/voices-climate-change-education
For Voices for Evolution, visit:
http://ncse.com/voices
Thanks for reading. And don’t forget to visit NCSE’s website— http://ncse.com—where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them.
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