Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Kentucky state science standards rejected by legislative committee

LEXINGTON, KY—The state’s science standards were defeated today in a bipartisan vote in a legislative committee. “This is a sign of the level of discomfort many people in this state have with science standards that ignore basic aspects of science in order to make room for trendy topics like climate science.”

In his testimony before the vote, Cothran criticized the standards for ignoring basic scientific knowledge about animals, plants, rocks and minerals. “Half of science is left out of the science standards,” he told the members of the Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee.

Cothran also criticized the approval process for the science standards and said that, despite all the criticism and comment, the Kentucky Department of Education hadn’t made a single change. “The Department has never intended to change anything. Even the Commissioner of Education said yesterday that there is no way to change them. If that’s correct, then why did we spend all this time going through an approval process?”

The vote seemed to come as a shock to educational officials who seemed simply to assume the legislature would give a rubber stamp. "This is a huge victory for families in Kentucky who want to know that their schools are teaching what they say they are teaching. This was a battle over educational integrity and educational integrity lost."

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