The Texas state board of education has voted to strip language from the state’s science standards saying students should be taught the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories.
That language has troubled scientists, who argue it is aimed at falsely suggesting that students should be skeptical of the theory of evolution. Some science organizations, however, were disappointed by a second vote of the board, in which its members amended a draft of the new standards that says students should “analyze and evaluate the sufficiency or insufficiency of common ancestry” to explain the fossil record.
Both board actions were approved by narrow votes on Jan. 23. A final vote on the science standards is expected in March, said Suzanne Marchman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.
