Louisiana Coalition for Science

By Barbara Forrest

On August 13, 2009, Mrs. Supriya Jindal, wife of Gov. Bobby Jindal, visited the Regina Coeli Child Development Center near Hammond, LA. She stressed the importance of educating Louisiana children in math and science: “Louisiana is becoming a hub for industries and companies of innovation and, important to all of us, companies that will require a work force that’s knowledgeable in the areas of math and science.” Mrs. Jindal has been traveling around the state, delivering this message at numerous public schools. Her visit and remarks were featured in the August 14 Hammond Daily Star. The following August 19 letter appeared in the newspaper in response and is reprinted here as an open letter to Mrs. Jindal.

Mrs. Supriya Jindal should be applauded for endorsing Head Start’s early childhood program during her August 13 visit to the Regina Coeli Child Development Center. Head Start richly deserves her endorsement. She should also be applauded for highlighting the importance of math and science education: “Louisiana is becoming a hub for industries and companies of innovation and, important to all of us, companies that will require a work force that’s knowledgeable in the areas of math and science. . . . it is industries like these that will power and grow our state and nation for the years to come. But their success will depend heavily upon our ability to provide a mathematically and scientifically proficient work force.” Speaking on behalf of herself and her husband, Gov. Bobby Jindal, she thanked the Head Start teachers for “inspiring the future leaders of our state who will help make Louisiana the greatest place in the world to find a great job and raise a family.” Concerning the importance of math and science education, Mrs. Jindal could do the state another service by speaking to her husband about the creationist bill that he signed into law as the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act. Louisiana is suffering tangible harm because of her husband’s signing this bill. First, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, a national scientific organization, decided against holding its 2011 meeting in New Orleans even though it has held three previous meetings there. SICB wrote to Gov. Jindal in 2008, as did eight other national scientific organizations, asking him to veto the LSEA. The governor didn’t respond. So on Feb. 5 of this year, SICB wrote to him again, telling him that “The Executive Committee voted to hold the 2011 meeting in Salt Lake City in large part because of legislation . . . you signed into law in June 2008.” Salt Lake City was chosen because the Utah State Board of Education has publicly stated the importance of evolution to Utah’s K-12 curriculum. (See http://www.sicb.org/resources/LouisianaLetterJindal.pdf.) Again, the governor didn’t respond, and New Orleans lost a major convention — and the dollars that attendees would have spent. Last week, because of the creationist LSEA, Louisiana received a grade of “F” in a study of state science standards by Dr. Louise Mead and Anton Mates of the National Center for Science Education that was published in the journal “Evolution: Education and Outreach.” Their study, “Evolution: How Does It Fare in State K-12 Science Standards?” reports, “The coverage of evolution in Louisiana’s state science standards is actually adequate and would have received a grade of C but for the Louisiana Science Education Act… The brief but adequate treatment of evolution in the state science standards is completely undermined by the LSEA, and the standards now score an F.” The study received national attention in “Education Week” and “USA Today.” The damage that the LSEA has done to Louisiana could have been avoided with a stroke of Gov. Jindal’s veto pen. Vetoing this creationist bill would have been an easy way of encouraging economic development for free, and Louisiana would have earned the nation’s respect. The only way to undo the damage now is to repeal the LSEA. This would be a service to Louisiana’s school children by helping to insure that they receive a quality science education that prepares them for the 21st century world. Surely, Mrs. Jindal can use her influence with her husband to persuade him to spearhead the repeal of this harmful, unnecessary law.

— Barbara Forrest