Why Academic Freedom Matters: A Look Back at the 2009 Texas State Board Hearings
As Tennessee becomes the latest state to enact academic freedom legislation, listen in on testimony to the Texas State Board of Education, who in 2009 held public hearings on revised science education standards. As one college instructor put it: “We need for our students to come to us at the college level able to think, and simply giving them a one-sided view of thinking in a purely Darwinian model is, in my opinion, not right.”
Ultimately, the board decided to improve the “strengths and weaknesses” language of the original standards in a victory for scientists and educators in favor of teaching the scientific evidence for and against evolution. Tune in to hear the arguments that influenced their decision.