In 1996, Nancy Powell’s son, who was in 1st grade at the time, was present when the Boy Scouts held a recruitment presentation in his school cafeteria during lunch time. Knowing at the time the religious discrimination that the Boy Scouts practice, Powell filed a lawsuit against the school district. She claimed that the recruitment event was an illegal mixing of church and state. Even though the school finally won the suit, they had changed their policy and now no group is allowed to recruit children during school hours. Powell succeeded in her cause. So what is the big fuss over what is probably the oldest youth group in America – steeped in tradition and patriotic fever?
Tag: public schools
A figure in one of the landmark cases concerning church and state died on August 20th. Vashti McCollum won an 8-1 US Supreme Court decision, in 1948, that ended religious instruction in the public schools.
The Columbus Dispatch reported today that it seems some parents of children who currently attend private school are enrolling their children in troubled public schools so they can get a voucher to pay for the private school they attend. Those who already attend private schools or are home schooled are not eligible to get vouchers.
Lame duck Ohio Governor Bob Taft, obviously knowing he has nothing to protect, reversed course and called for a legal review of Ohio’s 10th-grade biology teaching standards in light of the recent Dover, PA ID court decision. He also plans to ask future state board appointees about their views on the issue of Intelligent Design.
Democracy is great.
Our government and its agencies are required to have open meetings where one can observe the process and give input. If you have an issue you are passionate about you can use that forum to express your views and the body you are addressing may listen and consider your views.
That’s how its suppose to work, unless your issue is real science and those who support fake science like Intelligent Design (ID) try to censor you.
That’s what happened at the January 10th meeting of the Ohio Board of Education when the topic of removing a lesson plan favoring fake science came up.
Unless people have followed the Ohio science standards adventure since the beginning, you might be thinking “What’s the big deal?”
The standards and lesson plan adopted in 2004 was a compromise between science supporters and those who support Intelligent Design (ID).
While the standards include a disclaimer that ID would not be required to be taught, the standards left open the door to non-science ideas to be presented.
The simple fact, reinforced by the Kitzmiller decision in Dover, PA this past December, shows that there is no legitimate alternative to Evolution. ID is just creationism with a different label and all the attempts to hide it has failed.
At the Ohio State Board of Education (OBE) meeting on January 10th, a vote was taken to reverse their 2004 decision and remove the lesson plan that reeks of ID. The vote failed by one vote.
A group of Ohio scientists and friends of science, Ohio Citizens for Science, who have been fighting the standards since day one now have a PDF document that notes the 23 links between the Ohio standards process and the court decision in Kitzmiller.