logo
  • Nonprofit News
  • Management
    • Boards and Governance
    • Communication
      • Framing & Narratives
    • Ethics
    • Financial Management
    • Fund Development
    • Leadership
    • Technology
  • Philanthropy
    • Corporate Social Responsibility
    • Donor-Advised Funds
    • Foundations
    • Impact Investing
    • Research
    • Workplace Giving
  • Policy
    • Education
    • Healthcare
    • Housing
    • Government
    • Taxes
  • Economic Justice
    • Economy Remix
    • Economy Webinars
    • Community Benefits
    • Economic Democracy
    • Environmental Justice
    • Fair Finance
    • Housing Rights
    • Land Justice
    • Poor People’s Rights
    • Tax Fairness
  • Racial Equity
  • Social Movements
    • Community Development
    • Community Organizing
    • Culture Change
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Gender Equality
    • Immigrant Rights
    • Indigenous Rights
    • Labor
    • LGBTQ+
    • Racial Justice
    • Youth Activism
  • About Us
  • Log in
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Webinars
    • Leading Edge Membership
    • Sponsored Webinars
    • Economic Justice
  • Tiny Spark Podcast
  • Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Leading Edge Membership
Donate
Florida

New Florida Law Declares Open Season on Science Education

Martin Levine
July 10, 2017
Share49
Tweet
Share1
Email
50 Shares
“Beaker Is Not Pleased!” by Geoff Livingston

July 1, 2017; Washington Post

When Governor Rick Scott signed HB989 into law, he opened a Pandora’s box of controversy for every local school district in Florida. Under the new legislation, local school districts must now offer an opportunity for residents of their county to challenge the curriculum or textbooks on offer. The heated disputes that will arise from these challenges will divert already scarce resources and threaten the quality of education Florida’s children will receive.

Sarah Kaplan at the Washington Post writes that the new law “requires school boards to hire an ‘unbiased hearing officer’ who will handle complaints about instructional materials, such as movies, textbooks and novels, that are used in local schools. Any parent or county resident can file a complaint, regardless of whether they have a student in the school system. If the hearing officer deems the challenge justified, he or she can require schools to remove the material in question.” To guide their decision-making on what is appropriate, the law offers only broad suggestions: Materials should be “accurate, balanced, noninflammatory, current, free of pornography…and suited to students’ needs.”

According to the description in Nature, Florida’s new law is part of a multistate effort ostensibly to “embrace ‘academic freedom’ and present the full spectrum of views on evolution and climate change. This would give educators license to treat evolution and intelligent design as equally valid theories, or to present climate change as scientifically contentious.” Oklahoma and South Dakota also introduced academic freedom bills this year; both passed their state senates but were either defeated by or never reached their state Houses of Representatives.

Advocates for these bills deny they are anti-science. The lead sponsor of the bill in Florida told Nature that “one of the key things about this bill, and why I think it passed, is that we didn’t target any one subject matter.” But for many who supported the effort, the motivating force was in fact scientific positions they didn’t like. In an affidavit submitted by the Florida Citizens Alliance, one of the advocacy groups that lobbied for the bill’s passage, a concerned parent set forth their case:

There is a liberal agenda being taught in our schools. I have repeatedly attended School Board meetings where parents express their frustration over simple math concepts being taught as a process rather than an outcome. Students and parents are so frustrated with having to perform for process that our students are failing because of the anxiety they experience in this curriculum. The Superintendent of Collier Schools will not change the books being used to teach math, this despite repeated evidence that the Singapore Math curriculum is a Best Practices Curriculum and results in higher achievement scores.

Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, sees this campaign as an attack on quality science education. He told Nature that “the people pushing the bill have been complaining about evolution and climate change. It’s obvious that a strong motivation is getting that out of the textbooks.” He worries that “the success of the Florida bill could open the door to measures in other states that adopt the same back-door approach to altering science education by means of broader academic censorship.” Many educators contend that this law won’t improve the educational materials being used in Florida’s schools. Rather, it will bring the political battles over evolution, climate change, or the way math is taught into an unlimited number of time-consuming and expensive hearings.

But, there’s another danger. By moving the battle over educational materials from statewide processes to the level of local school districts, every public school board must now create a forum for its citizens to challenge anything of which they do not personally approve. This adds new financial and managerial strain to already overburdened public school systems and opens the door for decisions to be appealed and challenged in the courts, forcing school boards to choose between paying the added costs of litigation and compromising their educational judgement.

In some ways, this tactic mirrors a staple one employed by those desiring to suppress the vote by trying to remove voters from the rolls. As described in Mother Jones, challenges to the accuracy of the voter rolls have worked most effectively in poorer jurisdictions, targeting “small counties with significant minority populations that were more likely to settle than shell out precious tax revenue for a court fight.”—Martin Levine

Share49
Tweet
Share1
Email
50 Shares

About The Author
Martin Levine

Martin Levine is a Principal at Levine Partners LLP, a consulting group focusing on organizational change and improvement, realigning service system to allow them to be more responsive and effective.Prior to forming Levine Partners, Mr. Levine served the CEO of JCC Chicago creating a purpose driven organization, continuously realigning service and management systems to responsively and effectively fulfill JCC Chicago’s mission.Over the past 35 years Mr. Levine made major contributions to the transformation of JCC Chicago to its present position as a pre-eminent JCC in North America. Mr. Levine focused on strengthening the JCC’s effectiveness as a Jewish Community Building and Jewish Educational organization dedicated to “Bringing Jewish Values to Life” in all aspects of JCC programs and services.Mr. Levine was been responsible for the development of new facilities as part of JCC Chicago’s response to the changing demography of the Metropolitan Jewish Community. In addition, Mr. Levine had responsibility for guiding the Chicago JCC’s integration of its service and business strategies into a holistic approach.In addition to his JCC responsibilities, Mr. Levine served as a consultant on organizational change and improvement to school districts and community organizations.Mr. Levine has published several articles on change and has presented at numerous conferences on this subject.Mr. Levine held membership in many professional organizations including the Association of Jewish Center Professionals (Board member), Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups, Association for Quality and Participation, and the Future Search Alliance.A native of New York City, Mr. Levine is a graduate of City College of New York (BS in Biology) and Columbia University (MSW). He has trained with the Future Search and the Deming Institute.Mr. Levine served as President of the Gan Project, an organization committed to engaging communities in locally and ethically produced food.

Related
With Donor Households Declining, Will Universal Charitable Deduction Advance in Congress?
By Ruth McCambridge
December 4, 2019
Congratulations, You Won! Now Hand Over the Money
By Marian Conway
November 18, 2019
Republican Senator’s Report Calls for Universal Charitable Deduction
By Steve Dubb
November 14, 2019
Lord Foundations Distribute $1 Billion in Four Big Flexible Gifts
By Ruth McCambridge
November 14, 2019
The Very Good News behind Oklahoma’s Mass Commutation
By Ruth McCambridge
November 6, 2019
Show Me the Data…Unless It’s about LGBTQ Populations
By Carole Levine
October 30, 2019
other posts by The Author
When Leadership Means Stepping Back and Accepting...
By Martin Levine
December 12, 2019
ALEC Stays True to Its Roots…and That’s Scary
By Martin Levine
December 10, 2019
Has Yale Just Been Bought Off?
By Martin Levine
December 9, 2019
A Series on Sensemaking Organizations
The Sensemaking Organization: Designing for Complexity
The Sensemaking Mindset: Improvisation over Strategy
Structuring for Sensemaking: The Power of Small Segments
logo
Donate
  • About
  • Contact
  • Newsletters
  • Write for NPQ
  • Advertise
  • Writers
  • Funders
  • Copyright Policy
  • Privacy Policy

Subscribe to View Webinars

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by GDPR plugin
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.