Coming Soon: Sarah Palin Science in the Obama Age

A new and troubling development in the science wars

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told the National Science Teachers Association in New Orleans last week that President Obama "will not allow scientific research to be held hostage to a political agenda.... Whether it's global warming, evolution or stem cell research, science will be honored. It will be respected and supported by this administration." Their commitment to science education may soon face a serious test, with serious consequences for secondary schools across America. If they fail that test, it will be a victory for the scientific worldview of Sarah Palin - and a victory that controls science education for the next ten years.

I've written about this repeatedly, but there's a new and very troubling development afoot. In a stunningly anti-democratic back-door move, Texas State Rep. Wayne Christian has introduced a bill that would impose creationism-friendly, anti-scientific language in the state's science standards, no matter what standards the State Board of Education (SBOE) votes on this week. Christian's House Bill 4224 would re-instate the "strengths and weaknesses" clause that the SBOE voted to eliminate last month. Worse still, it ups the ante by inserting provisions that in essence give students the right not only to their own opinion about science, but also to their own "scientific" facts:

(c)  Students may be evaluated based upon their understanding of course materials, but no student in any public school or institution shall be penalized in any way because he or she subscribes to a particular position on scientific theories or hypotheses;

This sounds innocent enough, on the face of it - until you read the next section, which protects teachers who teach creationism (and following Steven Novella, I "use the term 'creationist' to refer to anyone denying evolution to a significant degree, from young-earth creationists to intelligent design proponents who accept common descent"):

(d)  No governmental entity shall prohibit any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students to understand, analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information.

Protected by this clause, a creationist could simply label creationism a "hypothesis" or "explanation," and trot out arguments for its "strengths" long since refuted or rejected by the international scientific community.

On Novella's post, Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science, explains the consequences of these two clauses, taken together, for the classroom:

Students could claim they believe anything they wanted in anything in science and if that’s what they say, the teacher would be forced to give that student an A. That’s how bad[ly] this bill is written.

Why this matters nationwide

The Texas textbook market, along with California, is the biggest in the nation. All major textbook publishers will tailor their science textbooks to please Texas, and all other states will have to choose from those textbooks. Worse still, the new Texas standards being voted on this week - and overturned by Christian's bill, if it passes - will stay in effect for the next decade. That means all schools nationwide will have inferior science textbooks beyond Obama's second term, if he has one.

The Texas SBOE vote this week will be close. Even if the scientific community prevails in that vote, it could be defeated by Christian's bill. And if that happens, we can only hope Pres. Obama and Duncan find a way to save evolution from being "held hostage to a political agenda."

Otherwise, educationally, we may as have Sarah Palin in the White House after all.

A question: What's the best action to initiate to oppose this?

[Update: The above-mentioned Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science, is live-blogging the SBOE sessions at the Houston Chronicle (h/t to Paul and PZ):

I will be live blogging the Texas State Board of Education meeting of 2009 March 25-27 in this column. This includes the hearing devoted to public testimony beginning at 12:00 noon on Wednesday, March 25. I will stay through the final vote on Friday, March 27.

You can listen to a live audio-stream of the SBOE public testimony too. I'm listening right now, and it's fascinating. A woman is protesting some history/social studies standards revisions for basically not being right-wing enough. Good luck to any national standards hopefuls out there....

Image by Colin Purrington