Florida's Education Evolution


Yesterday, the Florida Board of Education voted 4-3 to adopt new science standards that, for the first time, would require public schools to teach evolution.ÊPreviously, Florida's science standards referred to evolution as "biological changes over time," but those rules "were slammed by scientists as vague and shallow." The new standards are intended to "make science learning more in depth" and "improve the understanding of science by Florida students, who do poorly in the subject area when tested." In fact, a 2005 national review gave Florida's science standards a failing grade because of their "superficiality of the treatment of evolutionary biology" and for "fudging or obfuscating the entire basis on which biology rests." The new science proposal -- which won the approval of the National Academy of Sciences -- defined evolution as "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology" and one "supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." But instead of accepting thisÊscientific standard,Êthe Florida Board approved "a last-minute alternative"Êfollowing numerous public complaints and objections made by religious conservatives. The new Florida school science standard on evolutionÊwill come with a caveat:Ê"The subject will be taught as 'the scientific theory of evolution.'"