Louisiana Coalition for Science

LFF hasn’t endorsed any supplemental materials, but Mills says when a Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) proposed a policy on the new act that stated creationist and intelligent design information weren’t permissible, LFF persuaded BESE to remove the prohibition. He says what happens to the law is up to the teachers.

—David Winkler-Schmit, “Monkey Business: The Louisiana Science Education Act,” Best of New Orleans, March 9, 2009 [emphasis added]

Continue Reading »

Just a slight twist on the words of Orleans’s popular song accurately describes Louisiana’s position at the top of the charts concerning the “academic freedom” bills that the Discovery Institute has been peddling in various and sundry states around the country. The results are in concerning this year’s roster of academic freedom bills:  Louisiana is still the one — the only one with a law on the books [pdf], Act 473, the “Louisiana Science Education Act,” permitting teachers to use creationist supplements in our public school science classes (a fact that the young-earth Institute for Creation Research has noted approvingly). Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

The National Center for Science Education is the national clearinghouse for assistance with fending off creationist attacks on the teaching of science. NCSE was incorporated in 1983 “to provide a central information and resource clearinghouse, helping to coordinate the efforts of people working at state and local levels to preserve the integrity of science education.” Headquartered in Oakland, California, it provides help at no cost to parents, teachers, school boards, educational administrators, and concerned citizens who need help in protecting public school science education. Continue Reading »

Barbara Forrest

Louisiana is at or near the bottom of quite a few lists, a fact that is not news to anyone who lives here and cares about the future of the Pelican State. Gov. Bobby Jindal himself announces on his “Workforce Development” website that Louisiana is #49 —second from the bottom — with respect to schoolchildren’s educational success and economic prospects as adults:

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.

But things are looking up — as of March 22, 2009, Louisiana is now actually at the top of a list. The only problem is that it is a list on which the Louisiana legislature and the governor should be ashamed to have placed us. Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

Louisiana continues to receive quite a bit of attention because of the decision by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology to stay out of Louisiana in the wake of the state’s passage of the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act. The New York Times is only one of the out-of-state media outlets that have picked up the story. (The Louisiana Family Forum was apparently caught off guard by the story and issued a peevish response.)

The comment to the NYT from Bobby Jindal’s office is indicative of the level of (un)concern about the SICB’s decision: “That’s too bad,” a spokesman, Kyle Plotkin, said in an e-mail message. “New Orleans is a first-class city for a convention.” It’s ironic that the NYT even received an answer from Jindal’s office — Jindal never responded to the SICB letter [pdf]. Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

“Louisiana Open for Business — Creationists Welcome”

That is the message that Louisiana public officials are sending to the rest of the country since the creationist LA Science Education Act (LSEA) was enacted into law in 2008. They are taking their instructions from, among others, the creationist Rev. Gene Mills, the executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), the Focus on the Family affiliate that engineered passage of the bill in the Louisiana legislature. Rev. Mills, whose own children are homeschooled and attend private Christian schools, actually made his victory announcement using those exact words: “Louisiana is open for business. . . . And academic freedom and inquiry are welcomed here in the state of Louisiana.” Of course, in referring to “academic freedom and inquiry” he was speaking in the well-documented creationist code language in which his friends at the Discovery Institute, an intelligent design creationist think tank, have coached him. Last year —2008— was a good year for creationists in Louisiana. So far in 2009, they are still batting a thousand. Continue Reading »

• See Barbara Forrest, “Why Texans Shouldn’t Let Creationists Mess with Texas Science Education,” Southern Methodist University, November 11, 2008  — Video —  MP3

By Barbara Forrest

November 27, 2008

Texas science education is currently in the crosshairs of the Discovery Institute (DI), the conservative Seattle think tank that serves as the headquarters of the intelligent design (ID) creationist movement. DI’s supporters in the Lone Star state are using the same code-language strategy that its Louisiana supporters used earlier this year, in spring 2008, when DI targeted the science education of Louisiana children. Working through the Louisiana Family Forum, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, DI helped to promote the “academic freedom” bill that the legislature passed and Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law on June 25 as the “Louisiana Science Education Act” (LSEA). Long-time DI fellow David K. DeWolf admitted helping to shape the legislation, which is designed to permit the use of creationist supplementary materials such as DI’s intelligent design textbook, the deceptively titled Explore Evolution, in public school science classes. When Gov. Jindal signed the LSEA into law on June 25, the Discovery Institute declared victory. Now, in fall 2008, DI has targeted Texas. Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

One of the clearest indications that the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) is intended to advance the religious agenda of the Discovery Institute (DI) and the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF), the organizations that jointly promoted this legislation, is the law’s inclusion of a religion disclaimer that comes directly from DI’s doublespeak-titled “Model Academic Freedom Statute on Evolution.” Continue Reading »

Anyone who missed Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, which aired on PBS’s NOVA in November 2007, can view the entire program on Google video (112 minutes). This Peabody Award-winning documentary of the first legal case involving intelligent design (ID) creationism, Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005) is the story of the “Dover trial,” which ended in a decisive victory for the plaintiffs when federal Judge John E. Jones III, Middle District of Pennsylvania, declared teaching ID to be unconstitutional. Viewers will learn (1) how two school board members who claimed to be Christian lied in order to advance their creationist agenda, a fact that Judge Jones noted in the trial; (2) how eleven Dover parents who wanted their children properly educated and who value the separation of church and state stood up for what is right; (3) how good science and careful scholarship served the cause of justice and the Constitution in this case; and (4) how the Dover School Board’s attempt to promote ID wasted one million taxpayer dollars and ripped the small town of Dover in half, turning friends and neighbors against each other. Continue Reading »

SB 733, the “LA Science Education Act,” is now law in Louisiana. Prior to being passed in its current form, this bill was first introduced as SB 561, the “LA Academic Freedom Act.” It was one of six such bills, the introduction of which the Discovery Institute (DI), a creationist think tank in Seattle, coordinated in legislatures around the country. (Louisiana is the only state in which any of these bills has passed thus far.) During the LA Family Forum’s promotion of the bill, which was introduced on their behalf by Sen. Ben Nevers, the LFF’s partnership with the Discovery Institute became increasingly evident. This alliance emerged fully into public view with Casey Luskin’s presence at the May 21, 2008, meeting of the Louisiana House Education Committee. Luskin is DI’s program officer for public policy and legal affairs.

During the advancement of the bill in the legislature, DI, the LFF, and Sen. Nevers strenuously objected to any suggestion that the bill would allow the teaching of intelligent design (ID) creationism. In numerous publications and in federal court, ID has been shown, using Discovery Institute ID proponents’s own words (pdf), to be creationism, thus making it a religious belief. DI, the LFF, and Nevers repeatedly denied that the bill has anything to do with promoting religion; it will, they insisted, enhance the “critical thinking” skills of Louisiana students. No one was ever fooled by such denials, however, and no one is fooled now. Everyone knew then, as everyone knows now, that SB 733 has one and only one purpose: to give Louisiana school boards and teachers cover for teaching ID creationism. Continue Reading »