The 'Kochtopus' ALEC bill against climate science

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

Earlier this month I posted that the Birther Queen, Sen. Judy Burges wants to be the Grand Inquisitor of the Tea-Publican Inquisition against climate science:

SB 1213 says school boards and officials cannot prohibit a teacher from helping students analyze and review the "strengths and weaknesses of existing scientific theories," which means teachers would be free to tell students not only that they believe global warming is a myth, but would open the door for teachers to argue for the scientific validity of "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution.

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"The bill has all the markings of model legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative business-backed organization, to suppress certain issues like global warming."

That media speculation is now confirmed by Think Progress. Kansas Bill Would Require Teachers To Misinform Students About Climate Change:

Last week, the Kansas House Education Committee introduced a bill that mandates teachers question the scientific basis of global warming, becoming the latest state to take up one of American Legislative Exchange Council’s “model bills” aiming to misrepresent climate change in schools. Kansas would join Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Oklahoma as the fifth state to cast climate change as a “controversial” topic. [I guess Think progress was not aware of the Arizona bill, which makes number six.]

But climate change is only controversial in political and polluter circles, not the scientific community. 97 percent of climate scientists actively publishing in the field agree climate change is human-caused.

As National Center for Science Education executive director Eugenie C. Scott explained, “The only effects of enacting such a misguided bill would be to discourage responsible teachers from presenting climate science accurately and to encourage irresponsible teachers to misrepresent it as controversial.”

The bill resembles an ALEC “model bill,” written for corporate lobbyists. ALEC’s model bill mandates “a range of perspectives presented in a balanced manner,” “instruction in critical thinking so that students will be able to fairly and objectively evaluate scientific and economic controversies,” and present climate change “in language appropriate for education rather than for propagandizing.”