Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack defended the state's proposed science standards against criticism that they sideline evolution and exclude climate change Tuesday during the final stop of a public listening tour in Orange County, at Lake Buena Vista High School.
The proposed standards are the state's first comprehensive update to its science and health standards since 2008. The changes have drawn criticism from educators, parents and community members over how evolution and human-caused climate change will be taught, as well as whether teachers will have enough time to cover the material.
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Mack said the concepts remain in the draft, even when familiar scientific terms do not appear explicitly in individual benchmarks.
"It's my commitment that students are not going to walk away with anything other than a robust, real, grounded understanding of scientific truth that includes climate science, that includes climate change, that includes evolution and evolutionary biology," Mack said.
Critics question Mack
Some critics at the listening session argued that describing scientific concepts without naming them directly could leave room for confusion about what students are expected to learn.
Joshua Garrett, an Orange County Public Schools teacher, said he reviewed the proposed middle school standards and found that the current standards explicitly refer to the scientific theory of evolution, while the new draft describes how organisms and Earth have changed over time without consistently naming evolution.
"The information is there, but the fact that it's not explicitly stated as what they're trying to say is a little troubling," Garrett said.
He also brought up the removal of language addressing the nature of science, including how scientific theories are developed, experiments are replicated and researchers distinguish theories from hypotheses.
Mack said the state is working to make evolutionary biology more explicit in its proposed science standards while avoiding treating evolution through random mutation and natural selection as "settled science."
And although Mack pointed to a few units where the word and concepts of evolution exist, the term is not even defined in the new high school life sciences standards.
Stephana Ferrell, the parent of an incoming Orange County Public Schools freshman, raised concerns about the treatment of human-caused climate change and the state's influence over classroom instruction.
"When parents raise concerns about the lack of dedicated standards addressing an issue that is already affecting Florida families, and your response is a social media post counting 47 instances of the word climate in grades 9 through 12, you shouldn't be surprised by our reaction," she said. "Counting a word is not the same as teaching a subject."
Ferrell also said state policies have contributed to an environment in which some teachers may feel constrained in discussing certain topics.
Teri O'Connor, an elementary science teacher for OCPS who has taught elementary students for almost two decades, asked how teachers could cover more than 100 kindergarten standards in a 180-day school year, particularly when science competes with other subjects for instructional time.
"Especially if you want to dive in, we need to teach the rigor of it and to critically think about each one, that's difficult," she said.
Senior Chancellor Paul Burns, who was at the listening session with Mack, said the department develops more standards than are expected to be taught in any one course, giving schools and districts flexibility in selecting material.
Support for the standards
A couple of attendees voiced support for the new standards.
Kathleen Murray, the state education director for a conservative Christian organization, Citizens Defending Freedom, supported the standards update. She said students should be encouraged to question scientific theories and examine the limits of scientific models.
"When teaching the origins of life and the universe, the curriculum owes it to the Florida students to be honest about the limits of what scientific models can actually prove," she said. "By updating these standards, the Department of Education can help foster genuine critical thinking."
Dania Victores, who came from Polk County, said the proposed changes are "setting the foundation" for students in science.
"Science advances through respectful disagreement, and I'm excited to be here at this moment of a fork in the road where we will encourage the students through independent science," she said.
Mack defends 'Book of Creation' remark
The debate over science and religion also surfaced during the listening tour, primarily during the virtual statewide listening session earlier in October.
Public commenters questioned Mack's reference to the "Book of Creation" in a Florida Department of Education Facebook post outlining the state's proposed science standards.
In the memo, Mack wrote that "science begins in wonder, not in ideology," and described nature as something that "can be read by reason." He said the standards would encourage students to "observe carefully, reason rigorously, and treat the natural world as something given to be known, not invented."
Critics interpreted the phrase as potentially opening the door to religious ideas in science education.
Mack said the phrase was intended as a metaphor, not an effort to introduce religious doctrine into the standards, and he stands by what he said.
"The Book of Creation is a metaphor to explain the fact that this world and this reality and this universe that we enjoy has been given to us," he said. "I explicitly said that we are not attempting to smuggle any kind of ideology into the standards, religious or otherwise."
State says it aims to strengthen scientific reasoning
During the presentation, Senior Chancellor Burns explained that the department began reviewing the standards in 2024, working with educators, school administrators, instructional coaches and higher education faculty.
The department's stated goals include making the standards easier to understand, improving the progression of concepts between grade levels, maintaining academic rigor and emphasizing scientific reasoning.
The department said it had received nearly 1,800 public comments and had already made revisions in response. Officials said the draft would continue to change as the department considered additional feedback.
"I don't want students walking away blindly believing anything as fact without the ability to scrutinize it or question it," Burns said. "So that's my takeaway from this evening is that we might have to do a better job of helping students question more as a result of these standards."
The department said the proposed standards are expected to be implemented beginning in the 2028-29 school year, following adoption, updates to instructional materials and professional development for teachers.
Mack said the public still has an opportunity to shape the draft before the State Board of Education considers the standards in December.
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