In an informational mail, the Center for Inquiry (CFI), an organization of skeptics who believe strongly in the importance of the separation of church and state, blows the horn about a new Florida law. CNN provides some detail on the law:
A new Florida law would let anyone in the state challenge, and possibly change, what kids are learning in school.
Any Florida resident can raise concerns about teaching material they find unfit for public school classrooms, according to legislation that went into effect Saturday. The bill was introduced in February by Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Naples, and was signed into law last week after passing with bipartisan support.
An “unbiased hearing officer,” not employed by the school district, would determine if a complaint has merit, requiring schools to take any controversial books or material out of the classroom.
CFI‘s worries center around how the curriculum may change. From their mail:
The Florida Citizens’ Alliance, a group lobbying for pet causes of fundamentalist Christians, celebrated, declaring “Touchdown!” on their website. Their Managing Director Keith Flaugh has stated: “Darwin’s theory is a theory, and the biblical view is a theory, and our kids should be taught both in a balanced way.”
Let’s call this what it is: the blatant disregard of church-state separation.
This is a worrisome, expensive mistake by the Florida legislature, but I don’t think CFI can make a credible case for this law being a direct violation of the separation of church and state. I see there being two problems here, and therefore two different reasons for lawyers to get involved, much to the expense of Florida.
First, this law is not for the exclusive use of, say, Christian fundamentalists dismayed at the thought that they are the product of Evolution. Oh, no, anyone can use this, Christians, Hindus, Satanists, Anarchists, Communists, American Indians, Pastafarians, ex-patriate Minnesotans, or, in short, anyone who is capable of taking offense.
And I’m not talking about folks who glory in the denial of reality, as CFI worries. No. Suppose some fundamentalist Christian sect objects to the teaching of evolution and insists that their favored theory gets the lead position. Now what happens? The American Indians come along and insist they’re the offended ones, and now the fundamentalists are the victims of a legally permitted protest. In the end, someone hauls out the lawyers and sends them off to do their thing, and things start getting expensive.
Secondly, of course, the legislature would like to counterpunch this argument with the assertion that an “unbiased hearing officer,” unaffiliated with the school district, will hear complaints and require changes. But I’ll tell you what – no one’s really unbiased. The first time a hearing officer makes a decision against a party with lots of money, the lawyers will come out and dismember that hearing officer in court for not being unbiased.
And how will the victim hapless hearing officer prove he’s unbiased?
Who will defend our “unbiased” hearing officer? Not the school district – there’s expressly no affiliation. That means either he or she has to defend themselves, or the State will have to pay for that defense. So either the State will be rocked by unexpected expenses, or there won’t be any hearing officers.
Rather than bowing to pressure from small grievance groups, the Florida legislature should get back to working on secular, public education as it should be – teaching the tools we use to interact and study reality. Let religious groups teach their alternative theories creation, but since they all lack any factual evidence, they don’t belong in secular schooling, and science should teach what it knows with a reasonable degree of certainty. Textbooks should be selected for their fidelity to facts and / or science, not for ideology, cost, or other factors which will, in the end, negatively impact the education of our children – in particular, their understanding of reality.
If we become a nation based on whim and whimsy of the grievance groups, we’ll become a second-rate nation.
