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Public Gets Last Say On School Science Standards Monday

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By RONNIE BLAIR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

Updated: 02/09/2008 12:15 am

Florida residents who want to voice their opinions about proposed new science standards for public schools will get one last chance Monday when the state Department of Education holds a public hearing in Orlando.

The proposed science standards cover a number of areas, but much of the focus in newspaper articles, letters to the editor and Internet blogs has been the standards' mention of evolution by name for the first time.

"Evolution has made a nice whipping boy," said Joe Wolf, president of Florida Citizens for Science, a group that supports the standards as proposed. "Sometimes people have to have a cause to rally their troops around."
Florida educators already teach evolution, but the current Sunshine State Standards don't mention evolution by name. Instead, they say students should "know that Earth's systems and organisms are the result of a long, continuous change over time."

The hearing will be from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Orlando Hyatt at Orlando International Airport, 9000 Airport Blvd. Speakers will be allotted three minutes each.

The Florida Board of Education is scheduled to consider the science standards at a Feb. 19 meeting in Tallahassee, but no public comment is expected to be taken then.

A live webcast of the Orlando hearing can be viewed at www.fldoe.org.

'Excellent' Or 'Dogmatic'?

There have been four public hearings. A fifth wasn't originally planned, but the state decided to add the Monday meeting to give Floridians one more opportunity to weigh in, a Department of Education spokeswoman said.

Wolf, a Winter Haven resident, said he plans to attend the hearing and present a petition from his organization calling for approval of the standards as written.

Members of Florida Citizens for Science have been among the many Florida residents who contacted the Florida Board of Education to express their views.

"We have tried to show the board members these standards are excellent and really deserve their support," Wolf said.

"These standards are so much better than the old ones it's hard to compare them."

The revised standards are more direct, and include such statements as: "Evolution is the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence."

While that's a statement most scientists would agree with, critics of the proposed standards say it goes too far.

Fred Cutting, a Clearwater resident who was a member of the standards-writing committee, has submitted to the Board of Education a minority report that argues the proposed standards "take a dogmatic tone" when it comes to evolution and "overstate the degree of proof."

He suggested several changes in wording to emphasize a more critical view of Darwinian evolution.

"I just want to see the schools keep an open mind," said Cutting, who said his background is in aerospace engineering but that he studies biology as an avocation.

Some committee members seemed to be stuck in what was known about evolution in the 1970s and aren't keeping up with current research, Cutting said.

"My premise is, when you study a theory, you study the pros and cons of it," he said. "They do it with everything else."

He said he raised his concerns during committee meetings, but other members "didn't want to hear it."

Still, Cutting said that overall, he thought the committee members worked hard and did a good job.

"I think, in general, the biology standards are very good and all the other standards are very good," he said. "I just have trouble with five statements."

Other critics have trouble with more than that.

Already Being Taught

About 10 school boards, mostly in north Florida, have passed resolutions stating their opposition to the inclusion of evolution in the science standards.

The Highlands County School Board considered such a resolution Tuesday, but didn't take a vote after biologists, community college professors and a middle school student spoke in support of evolution.

Dan McFarland, who teaches honors and Advanced Placement biology at Durant High School in Plant City, said in some respects the new standards won't significantly change what goes on day to day in the classroom, at least in part because evolution already is so embedded within the teaching of biology.

"Were we effectively able to teach the standard before they used the E word?" McFarland asked. "Yes."

In most cases, as long as teachers aren't combative with students who take issue with evolution, they can avoid controversy, said McFarland, who also is executive director of the Florida Association of Science Teachers.

"Teachers have usually been respectful of students' dignity and individual beliefs," McFarland said. "I don't see it as a red-flag issue."

This article includes information from Highlands Today. Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at rblair@tampatrib.com or (813) 948-4218.

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