TFN has been in the news in bunches during the past few weeks due to our #StandUp4Science campaign and related efforts. Below you’ll find those press hits.
Excuse us if we’ve missed a few, we’ll be adding more as we come across them. Plus, we expect some new ones will be published soon.
And don’t forget that the State Board of Education’s vote to approve new science textbooks won’t happen until November, so our work goes on. Take a moment to sign the Stand Up for Science petition if you haven’t done son already: tfn.org/petition
New York Times
One is a nutritionist who believes “creation science” based on biblical principles should be taught in the classroom. Another is a chemical engineer who is listed as a “Darwin Skeptic” on the Web site of the Creation Science Hall of Fame. A third is a trained biologist who also happens to be a fellow of the Discovery Institute, the Seattle-based center of the intelligent-design movement and a vice president at an evangelical ministry in Plano, Tex.
As Texas gears up to select biology textbooks for use by high school students over the next decade, the panel responsible for reviewing submissions from publishers has stirred controversy because a number of its members do not accept evolution and climate change as scientific truth.
Slate
Zack Kopplin writes about the Texas State Board of Education’s science textbook adoption.
Mother Jones
Religious conservatives in Texas are fighting to infuse textbooks with their agenda — and it won’t just affect public school students in the Lone Star State.
Associated Press
The State Board of Education’s mulling approval of new science textbooks for classrooms across Texas reignited old tensions, as some conservatives sought to deemphasize lessons on evolution and climate change while experts argued that doing so would let ideology trump facts.
Huffington Post
In what the Texas Freedom Network described as a “lopsided victory for science,” hundreds of teachers, parents, creationists and concerned citizens traveled to Austin, Texas, Tuesday to testify before the State Board of Education on proposed biology textbooks for K-12 students.
Texas Tribune
A past Texas State Board of Education chairman and outspoken creationist urged his former colleagues on Tuesday to approve high school biology textbooks he said would “strike a final blow to the teaching of evolution.”
Dallas Observer
Don McLeroy, a Bryan dentist and former Texas State Board of Education Chairman who made a star turn as the anti-science Sunday school teacher in last year’s “The Revisionaries”, was unseated from the board in the 2010 Republican primary. Yet his crusade, to use science textbooks to explain the full wonder of God’s creation to the state’s impressionable young school children, has never really ended.
The Maddow Blog
Texas’ Board of Education is in the process of reviewing new biology textbooks, which at face value, wouldn’t be especially noteworthy. The problem, however, is that the state board appointed a variety of creationists to conduct the review, and they “very firmly” believe that “‘creation science’ based on Biblical principles should be incorporated into every Biology book that is up for adoption.”
Huffington Post
Once again Texas has joined a list of U.S. states that are fighting a rear-guard war against the progress of modern science.
KEYE
Scientific theory competed with biblical teachings at the State Board of Education on Tuesday as the members grappled with how evolution should be covered in Texas science textbooks.
YNN Austin
The issue of science textbooks drew a crowd of protesters who marched and rallied in support of books which teach mainstream research on evolution and climate change. They argued that some conservatives want creationism taught in the classrooms.
San Antonio Express-News
Proposed changes to science textbooks that critics say could dilute students’ understanding of the theory of evolution drew 59 people before the State Board of Education to argue about that theory.
Austin American-Statesman ($)
Scientific theory competed with biblical teachings at the State Board of Education as the members grappled with how evolution should be covered in Texas science textbooks.
KVUE
Complete with a Big Tex and a Tyrannosaurus rex, Texans from around the state rallied once again to keep the theological concepts of creationism and intelligent design out of school textbooks.
MyFoxAustin
A new fight kicked off over how science textbooks for Texas school children should be written. A hearing which was held by the state school board became another open debate about evolution and intelligent design.
San Antonio Current
A perennial punch-line of the nation, Texas’ State Board of Education may see another round of finger-pointing and head shaking from onlookers for its handling of biology textbooks. Tasked with nominating panelists to review the books, conservative evolution deniers on the SBOE have stacked the teams with creationists who are offering up some controversial suggestions.
Dallas Morning News ($)
More than two decades after Texas ended a virtual ban on coverage of evolution in science textbooks, the debate over how evolution should be taught to high school students goes on — and on.
Slate
The Earth is well over four billion years old. Evolution is real, and the basis for all modern understanding of biology. Climate change is happening, and humans are causing it. It’s important that we teach this to young students, as well as how to understand what constitutes real evidence as opposed to ideological zealotry. If you live in Texas, however, that necessity is under a real threat.
Salon
“The authors need to get caught up” on evolution and climate change, a review panel of Texas high school textbooks is arguing. Caught up, that is, to the idea that the theory of evolution is just a theory, and should only be included in biology textbooks alongside “creation science.” Or, you know, that we “don’t really know that the carbon Cycle (sic) has been altered.”
Washington Post
Here we go again. In Texas, a new battle over curriculum is underway, this time between people who believe in science and people who don’t.
Huffington Post
Students in Texas will soon be reading biology textbooks that teach creationism if some of the state’s textbook review panelists have their way.
Mother Jones
Behind closed doors, textbook reviewers appointed by the Texas State Board of Education are pushing to inject creationism into teaching materials that will be adopted statewide in high schools this year, according to new documents obtained by the Texas Freedom Network.
MyFoxAustin
Some high school biology books are coming under fire, mainly because of two topics, climate change and evolution.
Texas Public Radio
The Texas Freedom Network says book review teams for the State Board of Education are pressuring publishing companies to change how climate change and evolution are presented in next year’s biology textbooks.
Raw Story
Religious conservatives on the Texas state textbook review panel have targeted for elimination high school biology textbooks that don’t include robust refutations of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Beaumont Enterprise
In an editorial, the Beaumont Enterprise writes: “Let parents and clergy educate children on matters of faith, but science classes should teach science.”
Dallas Morning News ($)
Religious conservatives serving on state textbook review panels have criticized several proposed high school biology textbooks for not including arguments against Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The review panels include several creationists. They urge the State Board of Education to reject the books unless publishers include more disclaimers on key concepts of evolution. One reviewer even suggested a rule requiring that each biology book cover “creation science.” That would run counter to a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The decision banned the teaching of creationism in public school science classes.
Ars Technica
Texas’ school board, which has waged an ongoing battle over science education (among other topics), is back at it.
Associated Press
Publishers producing high school biology textbooks that could be used in classrooms across Texas are being pressured to water down lessons on evolution and climate change, a progressive watchdog group said.
Dallas Observer
Texas’ State Board of Education no longer has the stranglehold on textbooks it did a dozen years ago, when it forced an environmental science textbook to include skeptical language on global warming, or four years ago, when an attempt to slip creationist language into science books sparked a national uproar, or three years ago, when their social studies curriculum stressed the Christian beliefs guiding the Founding Fathers. That’s not to say the battle is over.
