Santa Fe School Board Opposed New Proposed Science Education Standards
SANTA FE - On Tuesday October 3rd 2017 the Santa Fe School Board had a unanimous vote on the purposed the new science standards hoping that the PED (Public Education Department) would change their already set guidelines to graduation standards.
The vote came to a 5-0 vote.
Though Joe Guillen, director of the New Mexico School Boards Association said on Tuesday that he expects that the Taos schools to follow the new science standards.
Santa Fe public schools is the only district in the state to voice out their opposition. The New Mexico Public Education Department has compromised the educations of New Mexico's children for political reasons. The NMPED board might gain support from religious people who reject the sciences of geology, and biology or they might gain political donations from the fossil fuel industries of oil, gas and coal.
Sixty one staff members of the Los Alamos National Laboratory wrote to the NMPD about their disapproval about the science standards that were trying to get passed saying that “There is absolutely no scientific rationale for weakening the treatment of these subjects.” Their letter suggested that being in denial about Human caused contribution to global warming and human evolution should not be taken out of classrooms, they believe that it is an important concept to teach as fact. They believe that there is proven science to global warming caused by humans and human evolution.
The Santa Fe School Board approved supporting a peaceful protest, “teach-in” at the PED building on Friday, October 13th to bring awareness to the changes. About 30 people attended the event which featured six speakers who shared their views on the upcoming changes. Speaker Steven Carrillo said that he was concerned about “the dumbing down of science in the state of New Mexico.” He feels that the new guidelines emphasize the oil and gas industries benefits to the economy and not enough on the effect of global warming.
Another speaker Rabbi Neil Amswych used a different approach in his address to the audience, he said, “The earth is 5,578 years old.” His statements are based on scriptural sources and beliefs, not facts. However he then said, “We know anyone who believes this is ignorant of the scientific data.”
This proposal is causing debate between scientists and religious believers. Scientists would like Human Evolution and in impact of humans causing pollution in the earth, Believers want equal emphasis on creationism and such things as climate change are just scientific theories and not proven fact.
there will be a hearing on October 16th which will allow the public to provide their input.
Scientist Dave Thomas, who works at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, may have summed it up best; saying, “Removing basic science concepts is wrong. The Earth is billions of years old, whether you live in Taos County or Luna County.”
