A new anti-evolution bill has been prefiled in the Texas House. HB 285 would alter the state's education code to say, "An institution of higher education may not discriminate against or penalize in any manner, especially with regard to employment or academic support, a faculty member or student based on the faculty member's or student's conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design or other alternate theories of the origination and development of organisms."
The Texas legislature convenes on January 8. An identical bill died in committee there in 2011. In Indiana, state senator Dennis Kruse, an advocate of teaching creationism, says that he plans to introduce a bill allowing students to challenge teachers on their lessons. The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel dubbed it "one more attempt to force a religious debate into science classrooms."
In other state education news, the Nebraska state board of education adopted a new set of social studies standards on December 7. The standards acknowledge climate change for the first time but, after some eleventh-hour changes, misrepresent it as scientifically controversial.