{"id":4242,"date":"2013-01-29T12:01:43","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T20:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=3130"},"modified":"2023-08-11T13:04:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T20:04:20","slug":"hundreds-of-voucher-schools-teach-creationism-in-science-classes","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/hundreds-of-voucher-schools-teach-creationism-in-science-classes\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Voucher Schools Teach Creationism in Science Classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Kopplin, a student at Rice University and a science education advocate, learned about the Independent Lens<\/em> film The Revisionaries<\/em><\/a> and contacted us. Kopplin, a winner of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Education,\u00a0has done some intensive research with MSNBC that reveals the extent of public school money going to fund education at private schools that teach creationism in science classes.<\/p>\n

Because the The Revisionaries <\/em>will be available online for several days after last night’s broadcast, we thought we’d continue the conversation by asking him to do a guest post about the findings.<\/p>\n

After reading his piece, let us know what you think — whether you’re happy about this form of dissemination of creationist beliefs, or appalled by it, or somewhere in between.<\/p>\n

Guest Post by Zack Kopplin<\/h3>\n

School voucher programs allow parents to choose to send their children to private and parochial schools, rather than public schools. The state uses the money that would have funded their public schools to pay student\u2019s tuition. Some parents make their choices between schools based on the sports teams or the quality of school facilities and quality of education. Others choose based on religion, and some of these religious schools teach creationism.<\/p>\n

School voucher programs are set up in different ways to allow several different groups of students to have school choice. Some programs give vouchers to students in schools considered failing, others to students with disabilities, and others to students from low-income families.<\/p>\n

Working with MSNBC\u2019s Melissa Harris Perry show, I researched the curriculum of hundreds of voucher schools. We documented over 300 voucher schools, in nine states and the District of Columbia, which are receiving public money, and are teaching creationism in their science classes. The program where we discovered the most creationist voucher schools was in Florida, where we discovered 164 schools.<\/p>\n

This is a list of some of the schools in these programs:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Liberty Christian School, in Anderson, Indiana, teaches from a the creationist ABeka and ASCI curriculums. They also take trips to the creationism museum.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Champion Preparatory Academy, in Apopka, Florida, uses the creationist Apologia curriculum. I own a copy of Apologia\u2019s Exploring Creation with Biology, 2nd Edition, which says \u201cThere are two big problems with the idea that dinosaurs lived long before human beings. First, there is no reason to believe in the idea that the Earth is really ancient… Second, archaeologists have found examples of ancient artwork that contain incredibly accurate drawings of dinosaurs\u201d (Wile and Durnell 506, 507).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cornerstone Preparatory Academy, in Acworth, Georgia, says in its school catalog that Life Science, \u201cwill begin by discussing the relationship of science to the Word of God and by examining the attributes of life, the classification systems, cells, and biblical creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The\u00a0student handbook\u00a0of Faith Academy, in Gonzalez, Louisiana, says students must \u201cdefend creationism through evidence presented by the Bible verses [sic] traditional scientific theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Harrison Christian School, in Harrison, Ohio, says, \u201cWe believe all things in the universe were created by God in six literal days of the creation week (Genesis 1:1-2:3, Exodus 20:8-11) and that the biblical record of primeval earth history in Genesis 1-11 is fully historical.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Carter Christian, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, \u201cabides by the A Beka curriculum\u201d which is a creationist curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Front Range Christian School in Littleton, Colorado, in its course catalog, says, \u201cthe Genesis account of creation is stressed.\u201d They also use the creationist Purposeful Design curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dupont Park Adventist School, in the District of Columbia, and has two schools receiving voucher students, says that in science classes, students will \u201cexplore and interpret evidences for the Genesis Flood and the Ice Age,\u201d and \u201cdistinguish between the basic ideas of and evidence for naturalistic evolution and special creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Rocky Bayou Christian School, in Niceville, Florida, says in its section on educational philosophy, \u201cMan is presumed to be an evolutionary being shaped by matter, energy, and chance\u2026God commands His people not to teach their children the way of the heathen.\u201d<\/p>\n

While we already discovered 300 voucher schools teaching creationism, likely hundreds more creationist voucher schools exist. Many schools in these voucher programs either don\u2019t have websites or don\u2019t advertise teaching creationism, but are very similar to the schools we\u2019ve already discovered teaching creationism. Also two states, Arizona and Mississippi, have voucher programs, but don\u2019t release lists of participating schools. We do know that every school in Arizona is eligible for Arizona\u2019s program, and we documented creationist schools in Arizona who could be part of this program.<\/p>\n

These voucher programs are very controversial and some have been challenged.\u00a0 Louisiana\u2019s school voucher program was declared unconstitutional, but is still continuing during an appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court. The program in Colorado is currently under an injunction.\u00a0 On the other side, the US Supreme Court upheld a voucher program in Ohio during Zelman v. Simmons-Harris<\/i>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zack Kopplin, a student at Rice University and a science education advocate, learned about the Independent Lens film The Revisionaries and contacted us. Kopplin, a winner of the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Education,\u00a0has done some intensive research with MSNBC that reveals the extent of public school money going to fund education at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-4242","blog","type-blog","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHundreds of Voucher Schools Teach Creationism in Science Classes - Independent Lens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public money is being spent for education in private schools that teach creationism. 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