Amendments for ESS: The Faction Strikes Back II!

The Earth/Space Science (ESS) course is a new one for Texas high schools. In January, McElroy and others added some scientifically iffy amendments to this course as well (fossil record and big bang could come up in the course, you know...) Efforts today to remove them failed, and more iffiness gets added...

Bob Craig (R-Lubbock, but NOT The Faction) tried to reverse 5 BAD AMENDMENTS from January (two of which are significant). [But they all fail, as described below]

TEKS 4 replace “differing theories” with “information.”
Throughout, Terri Leo (R-The Faction, Spring) points out that she didn’t get this overnight, in order to compare with the complaints from the other side when the Faction pushed through some changes in January at the last minute. She wants to know which members of the committee asked for this. Craig said Kyle Lewellen from the ESS workgroup facilitated the changes. Barbara Cargill (R-The Faction, The Woodlands) counters that after Schafersman (a frequent pro-evolution testifier and leader of Texas Citizens for Science) rewrote the amendments, some ESS workgroup members signed on, others didn’t. Craig’s amendment fails 6 to 8, with swing-vote Agosto (D-San Antonio) voting with The Faction.

TEKS 5 Craig would replace “understands” with “knows.” Ms. Leo says "understand" would be better for Bloom’s taxonomy. Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford, but NOT The Faction) says "knows" is consistent with the rest of the language elsewhere. Fails 7 to 7 with Agosto voting with Craig this time, but The Faction voting as a bloc, which they do so well.

TEKS 5B change “sources of heat” to “thermal energy sources” and changing “which are thought to allow…” to something less soft. Fails 7 to 7, with Agosto voting with Craig.

Terri Leo moves to make the first part of Craig's change: “thermal energy sources” instead of “sources of heat,” and it is unanimously passed.

TEKS 6: grammatical change, striking “the” before Earth. Unanimously passed

TEKS 8A: strike “proposed” before “transitional fossils.” Strike part about “..arguments for and against universal common descent in the light of the fossil evidence…” Fails 6 to 8 with Agosto voting with the Faction.

MORE BAD AMENDMENTS:
Ms. Cargill wants to amend 4A to delete mention of 14 billion years ago, and add language from Astronomy TEK 13B, “…and current theories of the evolution of the Universe including estimations of the age of the universe.” Leo points out that it is “scientific theories” of cosmetology—oops, she means cosmology, and corrects herself—so there is no danger of biblical account being added. Motion carries 11 to 3 with only Tincy Miler (R-North Dallas), Mavis Knight (D-Dallas), and Rene Nunez (D-El Paso) voting against it.

Cargill weakens TEKS 6A by inserting “that could have occurred…” so it reads "analyze the changes of Earth's atmosphere that could have occurred through time...", and it passes 10 to 4. (Agosto, Allen (D-Houston), and Hardy vote with The Faction.)

[This one's actually not so bad, compared to the others]
Cargill amends TEKS 7B to read "calculate the ages of igneous rocks from Earth and the Moon and meteorites using radiometric dating methods." The motion carries 8 to 6 with Agosto voting with The Faction.

BAD AMENDMENT #12:
13F: Cargill adds “given the complexity of living systems” to the end of the requirement on the origins of life so that it now reads "discuss scientific hypothese for the origin of life by abiotic chemical processes in an aqueous environment through complex geochemical cycles given the complexity of living systems." Motion carries 9 to 5 with Hardy and Miller voting with The Faction.