A bill that could undermine science education in schools is moving through Oklahoma’s legislature ― again.
If the Oklahoma Science Education Act, which allows the state’s public school teachers to challenge scientific facts during classroom instruction, sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the seventh year in a row Sen. Josh Brecheen (R) has introduced some iteration of this bill.
The bill passed Thursday in the the House General Government Oversight and Accountability Committee after the House Common Education Committee declined to hear it. The bill, which already passed in the state’s Senate 34-10 last month, will proceed to the floor of the House for consideration.
The proposal seeks to create a classroom environment in which students “respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues” and in which neither the State Board of Education nor any school district officials can prohibit public school teachers from “helping students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught.”
Critics of this bill and the six failed ones that came before it say the language is merely a backdoor attempt to let teachers inject science denialism into lessons about climate change, evolution and other hot-button subjects.
The bill “would allow science teachers to teach anything they pleased, while preventing responsible educational authorities from intervening,” the National Center for Science Education said in a press release Thursday. “No scientific topics are identified as controversial, but the main sponsor is [Brecheen], who introduced similar legislation that directly targeted evolution in previous legislative sessions.”
The Sierra Club’s Climate Parents organization and the social change network Credo Action have launched petitions that have gained traction against the bill.
“Parents want our kids to be innovators and problems solvers, and evidence-based science education is an essential prerequisite,” Climate Parents director Lisa Hoyos said in a press statement.
“We urge legislators to stand up for students, and their right to science education free of political interference, by rejecting this misguided ‘science miseducation’ bill.”
Brecheen did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the bill’s purpose.
It’s unclear how this bill would conflict with Oklahoma’s existing science education standards, which include lessons on both evolution and climate change.
Climate change has had a pronounced impact on the state. Temperatures in Oklahoma hit 100 degrees in the dead of winter early this year, and federal reports show that the increase in temperatures is changing crop growth cycles.
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