South Dakota ‘alternative facts’ science bill is rejected

There’s some pretty good news in the world of science education – at least for people who care about authentic science education: An “alternative facts” science bill in South Dakota was defeated in the state Senate’s education committee. It was the first of four similar bills introduced in 2017 in state legislatures to die.

SB55 would have allowed teachers to essentially teach anything they want as science as long as they used certain language.

There are three other bills in state legislatures at the moment that would allow science denial in classrooms: Indiana’s Senate Resolution 17, Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 393 and Texas’ House Bill 1485. Since 2014, at least 60 “academic freedom” bills – which permit teachers to paint established science as controversial – have been filed in state legislatures all over the country. Louisiana passed one in 2008, and Tennessee did, too, in 2012.

There was strong opposition to the South Dakota bill from the science and education communities, including from the South Dakota Department of Education, the School Administrators of South Dakota, the National Science Teachers Association, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the National Center for Science Education and the American Institute of Biological Sciences.

Given President Trump’s denial/questioning of man-made climate change and Vice President Pence’s denial of the theory of evolution – which is the animating principle of modern biology – there is some fear among science educators that state legislators will push through new anti-science legislation. In South Dakota, it didn’t happen.

All of that brings us to this concise message: In the center of a displayed work of first-grade students is this statement: “The good thing about science is that it’s true whether you believe in it or not.”