THINGS look better than they did yesterday.
If you’ve been following events in Texas, you can skip the background information in the next two indented paragraphs.
These are the final hearings on the Texas science education standards. Presiding over this show-trial is Don McLeroy, the creationist dentist whom Governor Rick Perry has just re-appointed to another term as chairman of the Texas Board of Education (BOE), and he’s determined to draft a science curriculum that will assure the teaching of creationism in Texas science classes. The hearings should conclude with a final vote on 27 March.
For these three days, the BOE will consider — or pretend to consider — whether the phrase “strengths and weaknesses” should remain deleted from the state’s science standards regarding evolution, and whether the recently added requirement that students should “analyze and evaluate” the “sufficiency or insufficiency” of evolution should remain.
The Texas Freedom Network has been live-blogging the hearing. According to them:
12:32 — Members are now going to hear amendments attempting to strip out anti-science amendments adopted by the board yesterday and in January. Lawrence Allen offers an amendment striking chairman Don McLeroy’s measure challenging common descent in the biology standards.
[...]
12:41 — McLeroy: “I disagree with all these experts. Somebody has to stand up to these experts. I don’t know why they’re doing it.”
[...]
12:59 — McLeroy: Mocks the argument that who is he, a dentist, to challenge scientists. He criticizes “the appeal to authority” as an argument against his position. “They are the experts, but science doesn’t operate on consensus.”
1:06 — Allen’s amendment passes 8-7, striking McLeroy’s challenge to common descent in the standards.
Hey, get this:
1:49 — Allen moves to strip out McLeroy’s amendment, passed yesterday, challenging natural selection.
1:54 — This amendment passes 8-7.
It’s not over yet. The hearing is still in session, and there are still some anti-science amendments in the standards that may remain, and perhaps more to be added. But for the moment, we dare to allow ourselves a bit of optimism.
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The fact that the votes are all so close should give you enough reason to be concerned.
But don’t worry, your beauteous Kansas Queen probably has something up her sleeve as we speak.