Five of Florida's university physics professors have an urgent plea for Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith: Save our science.

The five, who all sat on the state's science standards committee, worry that three bills supported by the Florida Department of Education make no mention of physics in proposed high school graduation requirements.

"In the present budget environment, that puts the physics community at the edge of the K-12
table next to the art teachers waiting for the next budget cut to nudge us off," FSU physics professor Paul Cottle said in an e-mail to the Gradebook. "I'll admit this is a tougher sell than PreK for economically disadvantaged kids, to take only one example. But we believe it's critical."

So the group has implored Smith (himself a science teacher) in a letter sent this morning to reconsider his backing of CS/HB 543, HB 1293 and SB 2654:

The letter writers are Cottle, Florida Gulf Coast associate professor of physics Michael Fauerbach, FSU associate professor of physics Hon Kie Ng, FSU professor of physics Harrison B. Prosper and FSU professor of physics Horst Wahl.