House File 183, the misleadingly named “academic freedom” bill is defeated. The bill was intended to regulate what is taught, how it is taught and how grading occurs in high school and college science classrooms.

House File 183 is closely modeled on template legislation promoted by the Discovery Institute, a think tank/advocacy organization based in Washington that is well known for promoting the teaching of “intelligent design.” Though the bill stopped short of requiring that “intelligent design” be taught, it would have directly regulated what and how teaching of evolution happened in science classrooms.