Saturday, February 11, 2006
Back to Un-Kansas
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I previously addressed the proposed bill of Wisconsin state Representative Terese Berceau to prevent the teaching of creationism or Intelligent Design as science in that state's public schools. Here is the text of the proposed bill, from a pdf file on Rep. Berceau’s website:
AN ACT to create 118.018 of the statutes; relating to: science instruction in public schools..Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau.This bill directs each school board to ensure that any material presented as science within the school curriculum is testable as a scientific hypothesis, describes only natural processes, and is consistent with any description or definition of science adopted by the National Academy of Sciences..The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:.SECTION 1. 118.018 of the statutes is created to read:.118.018 Science instruction. The school board shall ensure that any material presented as science within the school curriculum complies with all of the following:(1) The material is testable as a scientific hypothesis and describes only natural processes.
(2) The material is consistent with any description or definition of science adopted by the National Academy of Sciences.
I’m afraid that the actual text does little to allay my concerns about this effort by legislators to become arbiters of science.
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