TFN, Science Advocates to Texas SBOE: Don’t Ignore Experts on Science Textbooks
Petition Signers Call on Board to Adopt New Science Textbooks Without Watering Down Instruction on Evolution, Climate Change
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 20, 2013
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller is joining with science education advocates today in calling on the State Board of Education to adopt new science textbooks that don’t dumb down instruction on evolution and climate change.
The state board is holding its final public hearing on the proposed textbooks today. The Texas education commissioner has recommended that the board adopt all textbooks and other instructional materials submitted by publishers for high school biology and environmental systems. The board will vote Thursday and Friday on which textbooks to adopt. Those textbooks will go into classrooms in fall 2014.
“It’s past time for State Board of Education to stop ignoring experts when it comes to what Texas kids learn in their public school classrooms,” Miller said. “Board members should stop pressuring publishers behind the scenes and accept the recommendation of the commissioner as well as the judgment of educators and scholars across the country who say the proposed science textbooks teach established, mainstream science on evolution and climate change.”
This afternoon Miller delivered to state board members more than 26,000 signatures on petitions calling for the adoption of the proposed textbooks for high school biology and environmental systems. The petition campaign was promoted by TFN, Daily Kos, CREDO Mobilize, and Sojourners and Groundswell at Auburn Seminary. Those signatures are in addition to more than 300,000 delivered to the board in September.
Joshua Rosenau, programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education, delivered to the state board a letter signed by more than 50 science organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, calling on the state board to adopt textbooks that don’t misrepresent the overwhelming evidence supporting evolution and climate change science.
“As the letter says, by adopting textbooks recommended by the top scientists and teachers in Texas, the state will give students the foundation for the exemplary education they need to succeed in the 21st century,” Rosenau said.
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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of religious and community leaders who support public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.
