Ohio State House passes "religious schoolwork" Bill

[brooklynite]

Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Ohio House’s 61-31 passage of House Bill 164 last week has kicked up a furor. Some say the bill -- which would require that Ohio public schools “shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work” -- is an open invitation to scientific inaccuracy by allowing students to offer Biblical passages in place of accepted evolutionary fact in tests and papers.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Tim Ginter, a Republican from Salem, east of Alliance, flatly denies that, pointing to language in the same sentence of the bill that says, “Assignment grades and scores shall be calculated using ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, including any legitimate pedagogical concerns.”

But as columnist and editorial board member Thomas Suddes wrote, labeling the vaguely worded bill a “Full Employment Act” for lawyers: “How long would it take till some crafty Ohio high school pupil, assigned to write a biology paper on, say, human origins, turns in a copy of the Book of Genesis? Don’t like your grade? Good morning, your honor!”

Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist for the ACLU of Ohio, applauded HB 164 for seeking to end some restrictions on religious expression, such as a provision in current law that restricts student religious expression to lunch periods and other noninstructional time. But Daniels warned that the bill’s language -- that schools “shall not penalize” students for religious content -- would wind up having a chilling effect on teachers.

[Botany]

1. Ohio, Welcome to North Alabama

After my mom passes I'm out of here.

BTW this bill will get crushed in the courts .... separation of Church and State

[abqtommy]

2. My personal educational history from grades 1 through 12 is that 5 of those years were spent

in the Public School system and the remaining 7 years were spent in parochial/religious schools.
Now at age 70 I often think of the years I spent in parochial schools as being wasted, as seeing
that a parochial education limited my capacity and options to learn in a meaningful manner. It's my opinion that we need to fight to keep religion out of government and education.

[napi21]

3. Perhaps Ohio can ceceed from the US & join Afghanistan or Nigeria where they are ruled by Sharia

law. Seems they'd be much happier.

[Ms. Toad]

4. Before freaking out, please read the actual law.

As with all too many reports we would like to believe becasue they confirm our biases, this is much more nuanced than it is being presented.

This is a key phrase: Assignment grades and scores shall be calculated using ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, including any legitimate pedagogical concerns.

The location of the phrase “shall not penalize or reward a student based on the religious content of a student’s work” is in a section where a student might appropriately incorporate religious themes (e.g. in an art project).

Is it necessary - no. The US constitution already prohibits interfering with religious expression when such expression is appropriate.

Is it going to lead to science teachers being required to give equal grades for dinosaurs did - or did not - co-exist with humans - no.

[blueinredohio]

5. I don't know about that.

It depends on where you live in Ohio as to how they will interpret the law. There wasn't supposed to be prayer in school except individuals but any program the school put on where I'm from had a pastor saying a prayer.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Have you read the text of the law? n/t

[onenote]

6. Agreed. I tried to point this out a few days ago.

It's a dumb law, but it isn't what it is being portrayed as.