The Bay District School Board is about to enter the fight over whether evolution should be taught as fact or theory.
At next Wednesday's board meeting, the panel will decide whether to approve a resolution opposing the proposed teaching of evolution as a scientific fact. That's six days before the state Board of Education decides whether to adopt new sunshine state standards for science.
Those standards present evolution as "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology, and is supported in multiple forms of scientific evidence".
The proposed local resolution calls for the teaching of the scientific strengths and weaknesses of the evolution "theory", rather than teaching it as dogmatic fact.
The resolution is similar to those adopted by several area school boards. and Marianna State Representative Marti Coley is urging the legislature to add the word "theory" in a new evolution bill.