During last year's legislative session, I highlighted SB 651, which was written by the Louisiana Family Forum, and offered by Democratic State Senator Ben Nevers. It later morphed into SB 733, which passed the Legislature overwhelmingly, garnering only 3 "no" votes in the House, and passing unanimously in the Senate.
The language of the bill (pdf alert) allows for religious ideas of the earth's creation to be taught by public school teachers, specifically, creationism, all behind the guise that everything in science is a "theory."
The issue that many scientists have with this bill is that the meaning of theory in science is vastly different than that of the common, every day meaning we ascribe to theory. In science, a theory is a "a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena." In the field of biology, scientists have tested the "theory" of evolution in experiments, and it has not yet been disproven.
The religious right is twisting the common, every day meaning of theory - an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances - to bolster their argument that creationism - the idea that God created the world in seven days or that the Earth is thousands of years old - is also a logical interpretation of the facts we have before us.
Anyhow, all this will come to a head here in Louisiana over the next few days. Today, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Student/School Performance and Support (SPSS) Committee meets. One of the items on their agenda is Science Education (pdf alert), which means that they will take up what to do about SB 733 by considering revising Bulletin 741, which is the school administrator handbook that all school boards in Louisiana must follow.
And on Thursday, at 9 AM in Room 1-100 of the Claiborne Building at 1201 N. Third Street in Baton Rouge, the full Board of Education will meet to review the SSPS Committee Report (pdf alert) on the Louisiana Science Education Act.
Already, some of the earlier wording - "religious thinking shall not be advanced under the guise of critical thinking" - has been removed. And the proposed changes to Bulletin 741 will expose Louisiana's children to religious beliefs during their science class than ever before. For a state trying to diversify its economy by building up its biomedical research sector, such an changes may be the death knell.
No, this is NOT an April Fool's story, and yes, Democrats are people of faith too, y'all. Just in case y'all didn't know that.
A Democratic State Senator - Ben Nevers - has filed a bill, SB 651, currently titled "The Louisiana Academic Freedom Act." I'm guessing Frank Luntz advised him on the name.
The bill provides for the following:
Educational authorities in Louisiana should “assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies.”
Biological evolution, global warming and other topics “can cause controversy” in public school classrooms and may confuse teachers on how they should be taught.
Teachers and others should encourage students to tackle different views on such topics, including scientific strengths and weaknesses of each theory.
Secular institutions, of which public schools are, cannot teach religious instruction in the curriculum. It's as simple as that. The Supreme Court already smacked us down before for trying to teach creationism in our schools. Are we attempting to prove Albert Einstein right? After all, he defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
Now, Mr. Nevers is a nice man, but he has been hoodwinked by the Louisiana Family Forum, which is an innocuous sounding name for a right-wing shill group intent on telling us all how we ought to be living our lives. Don't believe me? Look at their mission, which is right on their website (emphasis added):
To persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research, communication and networking.
Biblical principles? Centers of influence? That's mighty high falutin' language to dress up the fact that they'll use our elected officials to push their agenda upon the rest of us.
