Kentucky anti-science act

It’s that time of year again, when legislatures throughout these united states are opening new sessions after the elections, and fundamentalist legislators renew their campaigns against teaching science in the public schools. One of the first out of the gate this year is Kentucky, where this “Kentucky Science Education and Intellectual Freedom Act” has been […]

the debate I wanna see (Will Phillips v. Carrie Prejean)

On CNN Monday morning (Nov. 16, 2009), ten-year-old Will Phillips his reason for refusing to say the pledge of allegiance in his fifth-grade class: I’ve grown up with a lot of people and I’m good friends with a lot of people who are gay and I think they should have the rights all people should, […]

McLeroy’s endorsement of creationist nonsence book

In a comment on an earlier post here, Scott calls attention to a press release on a new book attacking “evo-atheists” (such as the NAS), with an endorsement by Don McLeroy, who identifies himself in the endorsement as the Chairman of the Texas State Board of Education (!) For more on this, see “Don McLeroy, […]

Texas Bill on “Science” Teaching

A bill has been introduced in the lower house of the Texas legislature that would mandate and protect anti-science teaching and learning in the state’s science classes. Instead of elaborating, I’ve just added the emphasis in the text below: . By: Christian H.B. No. 4224 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT relating to the teaching of science […]

Texas State School Board supports science education

Update: After voting down Dunbar’s amendments to restore the “Strengths and Weakness” language, other troubling amendments did get passed. Audio of the Board’s votes and discussions January 22 are now posted at https://curricublog.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/sboe-jan22-meeting/ . There are also links on that page to three live blogs with text accounts of what was done. ============================= In preliminary […]

TX SBOE science hearings 1/21/2009 (with audio)

Audio files of the Texas Bd. of Ed. hearings on science standards, Jan. 21, 2009 can be played or downloaded from this post. Live blogging from the event was done by Steve Schafersman, President of Texas Citizens for Science Josh Rosenau of the National Center for Science Education (His own blog, not an NCSE blog) […]

Schafersman v Cargill mini-debate on Science TEKS

See the information in Steven Schafersman’s comment, below the body of this post. ========================================================= Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science, will be in a mini-debate with Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) member Barbara Cargill at 8:20 a.m. tomorrow [Texas time; that’s 9:20 in New York and 6:20 in California] (Jan 21, 2009) […]

Implementing Louisiana’s “Science Education” law

For today’s (Jan 14) update on the Louisiana Board’s consideration this week of policy for implementing the state’s new “science education” law, see this post by the Sensuous Curmudgeon. You can click here to download a pdf of the report  posted prior to the meeting. (Note: I extracted these pages from the humongous file on […]

Emergency! (not OK in Oklahoma)

First out-of-the-gate in what will be this year’s rash of “Academic Freedom” [i.e., anti-Bio-science] bills is S.B. 320, Oklahoma’s self-styled “Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act,” introduced to address the “Emergency” now threatening that state: SECTION 3.  It being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is hereby […]

Barbara Cargill — TX SBOE’s “Science” teacher

Texas State Board of Education member Barbara Cargill posted an article at Texas Insider.org yesterday (December 18), in which she argues that … too often the tendency is to teach rote memorization of accepted facts.  Instead, teachers must encourage independent thinking.  By applying the scientific process, students will be challenged to think “outside the box” […]

more on Ben Stein: “Darwinism cannot explain gravity”

============== Added Feb. 1, 2009: Here’s the current form of an amendment that Texas State Board of Ed Chairman McLeroy (with an egregious quote-mining rampage) got added to the current draft of the Texas science standards, as approved at First Reading Jan. 23, to be put to a final vote in March: [Students will] Analyze […]

teaching evolution controversy debate on CNN

Here’s a five-minute debate: I don’t have time to comment now, so I’ll just post the clip for now.

Exorcist Governor defends anti-science law on TV (video)

Here’s Louisiana’s exorcist Governor on CBS Face the Nation, defending the anti-science legislation that he has signed into law. Here’s the transcript: