By Barbara Forrest

The kind of publicity that Gov. Bobby Jindal brought to Louisiana by signing the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), a stealth creationism bill, is the kind that the state could well do without. The December 2008 issue of Scientific American, the country’s most respected science magazine for the educated public, calls the attention of the entire country to the fact that Jindal ignored his Brown University biology professor, Dr. Arthur Landy, who publicly requested that he not sign the bill. (Prof. Landy’s appeal was only one of many. See here and here.) In “The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom,” Glenn Branch and Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education use Louisiana as the prime example of the creationist strategy of disguising their agenda in legislation such as the LSEA: “Creationists who want religious ideas taught as scientific fact in public schools continue to adapt to courtroom defeats by hiding their true aims under ever changing guises.” Why did they use Louisiana as the prime example? Because we are the prime example—thanks to the Louisiana Family Forum, the Discovery Institute (the LFF’s partner in this sorry episode), the Louisiana legislature, and Gov. Jindal.

Branch and Scott open their article by relating Landy’s futile plea to his former student, the governor of Louisiana:

Professors routinely give advice to students but usually while their charges are still in school. Arthur Landy, a distinguished professor of molecular and cell biology and biochemistry at Brown University, recently decided, however, that he had to remind a former premed student of his that ‘without evolution, modern biology, including medicine and biotechnology, wouldn’t make sense.’

The sentiment was not original with Landy, of course. Thirty-six years ago geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky, a major contributor to the foundations of modern evolutionary theory, famously told the readers of The American Biology Teacher that ‘nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution.’ Back then, Dobzhansky was encouraging biology teachers to present evolution to their pupils in spite of religiously motivated opposition. Now, however, Landy was addressing Bobby Jindal—the governor of the state of Louisiana—on whose desk the latest antievolution bill, the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, was sitting, awaiting his signature.

They close with a forthright—and accurate—assessment of what the governor and the legislature have done to Louisiana by passing the LA Science Education Act:

[I]t is clear why the Louisiana Science Education Act is pernicious: it tacitly encourages teachers and local school districts to miseducate students about evolution, whether by teaching creationism as a scientifically credible alternative or merely by misrepresenting evolution as scientifically controversial. . . . Telling students that evolution is a theory in crisis is—to be blunt—a lie.

Moreover, it is a dangerous lie. . . . Students who are not given the chance to acquire a proper understanding of evolution will not achieve a basic level of scientific literacy. And scientific literacy will be indispensable for workers, consumers and policymakers in a future dominated by medical, biotechnological and environmental concerns.

NOTE TO READERS: Please keep that last statement in mind as you read the following excerpt from Gov. Jindal’s own “Workforce Development” website:

Student achievement and preparation for the workforce:  In a 2007 national Chance-for-Success Index, Louisiana ranks #49 in the nation based on 13 indicators that highlight whether young children get off to a good start, succeed in elementary and secondary school, and hit crucial educational and economic benchmarks as adults.

The failures of the state’s workforce development system cannot be addressed with piecemeal programs and policy changes. Governor Jindal is committed to systemic transformation of Louisiana’s approach to workforce development. This reform will require an extensive, sustained effort over several years.  Initiatives must be stronger, well coordinated, and better designed to meet the needs of Louisiana’s businesses to advance economic development and the quality of life of our citizens.

And recall it again as you watch the governor in this video (wmv/1:22): Jindal on Louisiana Work Force

Here is the important part of Gov. Jindal’s videotaped message:

We have to compete based on a skilled work force. We have to compete with states all over this country. We have to compete with countries all over this world. And what will set Louisiana apart, what will guarantee a bright future for our people is having the skilled work force with the skills they need for the modern economy. But . . . this isn’t just about economic growth. It’s not just about filling jobs. It’s about improving the quality of life for our people. The only way to reduce those poverty rates, the only way to increase those income rates, the only way to improve those health outcomes . . . is to make sure that our people have the education, the training, the skills they need to fill these good-paying jobs. This is truly the most  important step we can take for the quality of life for our people to move Louisiana to the top of the good states.

MESSAGE TO GOV. JINDAL: Bringing the Louisiana work force into the 21st-century world will be much easier if our children are taught 21st-century science in Louisiana schools. The creationist supplements that teachers are permitted to use under the law you signed will drag them back to the early 19th century. Nothing could be more cynical and unfair.

QUESTION TO READERS: Do Gov. Jindal’s actions—i.e., signing the creationist LA Science Education Act—square with his words?