a simple prop

NCSE announces the birth of Oklahoma SB 554 [rtf] and thus the third anti-evolution bill of the year. Today was the first day of my Origins, Evolution & Creation class and I was able to show this year’s Missouri and Kentucky bills.

The preamble of the OK legislation appears innocuous enough:

An Act relating to school curriculum; stating legislative intent; requiring the State Board of Education to adopt certain curricular standards; providing that schools shall not prohibit teachers from providing certain information to students; protecting teachers from retaliation for providing certain information; allowing students to be held accountable for information taught in a course; defining term; providing for codification; providing for noncodification; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.

But if you read on you see

The State Department of Education, or any school district or school district administrator, shall not prohibit any teacher from informing students about relevant scientific information regarding either the scientific strengths or scientific weaknesses of controversial topics in sciences, when being taught in accordance with adopted standards and curricula. Controversial topics in sciences include but are not limited to biological origins of life and biological evolution

Read the NCSE announcement for more information.