BILL TO UNBLOCK NGSS PASSES WYOMING SENATE
Wyoming’s House Bill 23 was passed by the Senate on a 27-3 vote on February 12, 2015. The bill would allow the state to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards by repealing a footnote in the state budget for 2014-2016 that precluded the use of state funds for “any review or adoption” of the NGSS.
The treatment of climate change was cited as the reason for the footnote in the budget, as NCSE previously reported. The Wyoming state board of education subsequently declined to develop a new set of science standards independent of the NGSS. Despite the legislature’s decision, local school districts are free to adopt the NGSS, and about fifteen (of forty-eight) have reportedly done so.
Before passing HB 23, the Senate amended it by adding, “The state board of education may consider, discuss or modify the next generation science standards, in addition to any other standards, content or benchmarks as it may determine necessary, to develop quality science standards that are unique to Wyoming.” The House previously considered and rejected such a provision, so the bill will proceed to conference committee.
“It’s clear,” commented NCSE’s Mark McCaffrey, “that Wyoming educators want to be able to make use of the NGSS. It would be a shame if the Senate’s amendment to the bill survived, enabling the opponents of sound science education to lobby against the use of the standards as somehow not sufficiently unique to the state.”
For Wyoming’s House Bill 23 as introduced (PDF), visit:
http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2015/Introduced/HB0023.pdf
And for NCSE’s previous coverage of events in Wyoming, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/wyoming
ANTISCIENCE BILL IN MONTANA DIES
Montana’s House Bill 321, which purports to “encourage critical thinking regarding controversial scientific theories” such as “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, random mutation, natural selection, DNA, and fossil discoveries,” was tabled in the House Education Committee on February 9, 2015.
According to the Billings Gazette (January 29, 2015), the bill “would encourage high school teachers to present evolutionary biology as disputed theory rather than sound science and protect those who teach viewpoints like creationism in the classroom.”
The House Education Committee discussed HB 321 in its February 6, 2015, meeting. Only two testifiers, including the bill’s sponsor, Clayton Fiscus (R-District 46), spoke in favor of the bill, while over a dozen testifiers, including scientists, teachers, theologians, school board members, and concerned parents, testified against it.
For information about Montana’s House Bill 321, visit:
http://www.leg.mt.gov/bills/2015/billhtml/HB0321.htm
For the story in the Billings Gazette, visit:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/anti-evolution-bill-would-protect-hs-teachers-who-teach-creationism/article_6c80d5dc-13d4-5e28-a195-61e83e9d8d78.html
And for NCSE’s previous coverage of events in Montana, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/montana
ANTISCIENCE BILL IN SOUTH DAKOTA DIES
South Dakota’s Senate Bill 114 is out of commission, following a February 10, 2015, hearing in the Senate Education Committee. The committee voted to defer further consideration of the bill to the forty-first legislative day, and since the legislative session in South Dakota is forty days long in odd-numbered years, the bill is effectively dead.
Identifying “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, [and] human cloning” as scientifically controversial, SB 114 would, in effect, have allowed public school teachers to miseducate their students about science—and would have prevented state and local educational authorities from intervening.
Testifying in support of the bill at the committee hearing were representatives of Concerned Women for America, the South Dakota Family Policy Council, and the Discovery Institute; testifying in opposition were representatives of the state department of education, the South Dakota Education Association, and the Associated School Boards of South Dakota.
For information about South Dakota’s Senate Bill 114, visit:
http://legis.sd.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/Bill.aspx?File=SB114P.htm&Session=2015
And for NCSE’s previous coverage of events in South Dakota, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/south-dakota
STORMS OVER NEW UTAH SCIENCE STANDARDS?
Utah’s new state standards for middle school science education are on hold, reports the Salt Lake Tribune (February 9, 2015) — and evolution and climate change may be the reason.
Although the draft standards were to be released for public review and comment in February 2015, the state board of education’s standards and assessment committee decided to postpone their release pending further revisions. Laura Belnap, a member of the board, told the newspaper that the reason for the committee’s decision was the incorporation of computer science in the standards.
In a subsequent editorial, however, the Tribune (February 9, 2015) complainedthat “the state board is in a holding pattern because of a few objections that the proposed standards are too accepting of such ‘controversial’ scientific principles as evolution and climate change,” adding, “in science class they teach science. Evolution and climate change included, or it cannot be called science class.”
The editorial may have been prompted by a comment from Vincent Newmeyer, a parent who served on a state committee that reviewed the standards, who felt that the draft standards took a position on controversial subjects. “That is true with global warming, that is true with Darwinian evolution and a number of other things,” Newmeyer told the newspaper. “It’s not a science class in these areas. It’s an indoctrination class.”
“With the public review now on hold,” the Tribune commented, “it is not clear what the next steps for the science standards will be.”
For the Salt Lake Tribune’s story and editorial, visit:
http://www.sltrib.com/home/2150311-155/new-school-science-standards-for-utah
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/2159511-155/editorial-utah-is-not-exempt-from
And for NCSE’s previous coverage of events in Utah, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/utah
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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.
Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
branch@ncse.com
http://ncse.com