Bill would ban the teaching of scientific theories in Montana schools

Authored by mtpr.org and submitted by cambeiu

A bill in the state Legislature seeking to regulate science curriculum in public schools got its first hearing Monday. The legislation’s sponsor says by banning scientific theories, the policy aims to prevent kids from being taught things that aren’t true.

More than 20 people testified against Senate Bill 235, concerned that it could keep teachers from including gravitational theory, evolution and cell theory in curriculum.

Kevin Hudson / Montana Legislature Daniel Emrich

Mia Taylor is a sophomore at Helena High School. She told the committee, "If we remove scientific theory from science curriculums, what can be taught will be limited. It is the school's job to educate its students."

The bill is sponsored by freshman Republican Senator Daniel Emrich from Great Falls. In his testimony, Emrich said the bill would make sure students are taught what a scientific fact is.

"If we operate on the assumption that a theory is fact, unfortunately, it leads us to asking questions that may be potentially based on false assumptions," Emrich said.

A legal note from legislative staff says the bill could overstep the Board of Public Education’s constitutional authority to oversee schools in the state.

The committee did not take immediate action on the bill.

dkyguy1995 on February 10th, 2023 at 08:21 UTC »

Thought they were talking about specific theories. Nope just "theories" in general because according to them we should only be teaching science "facts" and not "theories". So dumbass legislators who don't understand what the fuck a theory is and think it's just an opinion and not framework that is meant to satisfy the results of all our current experiments

Appropriate_Lemon254 on February 10th, 2023 at 05:58 UTC »

So the GOPs ultimate plan is to just make half of the country uneducated morons who will believe whatever they're told.

amohr on February 10th, 2023 at 04:58 UTC »

The word "theory" has more than one meaning. A scientific "theory" is a system for understanding physical phenomena using models based on empirical evidence.

It does NOT mean a "guess" or something that scientists are unsure about, like the colloquial meaning of "theory".