Wisconsin legislation that threatened science education vetoed
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: September 1, 2014
Publisher Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Critical Science Newswire
Original Link: https://ncse.ngo/wisconsin-legislation-threatened-science-education-vetoed
Publication Date: April 19, 2024
Organization: National Center for Science Education
Organization Description: The National Center for Science Education promotes and defends accurate and effective science education because everyone deserves to engage with the evidence. One day, students of all ages will be scientifically literate, teachers will be prepared and empowered to teach accurate science, and scientific thinking and decision-making will ensure that all life can thrive and overcome challenges to our shared future.
By Glenn Branch
A bill purporting to give parents rights over the education of their children attending public schools, which might have harmed science education in Wisconsin, was vetoed by Governor Tony Evers (D) on March 29, 2024.
Wisconsin’s Assembly Bill 510 would, if enacted, have provided that parents have “[t]he right to opt out of a class or instructional materials at the child’s school for reasons based on either religion or personal conviction” and “[t]he right to timely notice by the child’s school, through a process consistent with school policy, of when a controversial subject will be taught or discussed in the child’s classroom,” where “controversial subject” is defined as “a subject of substantial public debate, disagreement or disapproval.”
Although no scientific topics are explicitly mentioned in the bill, there are frequently requests or demands for students to be excused from evolution instruction, as NCSE’s Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch described in Evolution: Education and Outreach in 2008. And both evolution and climate change are arguably subjects of “substantial public debate, disagreement or disapproval,” even though there is clearly a scientific consensus on both (see, for example, the Pew Research Center’s description of a 2014 survey of members of the AAAS).
Describing himself as “a former science teacher, principal and state superintendent,” Governor Evers wrote(PDF), “I am vetoing this bill in its entirety because I object to sowing division in our schools, which only hurts our kids and learning in our classrooms.”
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