Louisiana Coalition for Science

By Barbara Forrest

On September 10, 2012, Central Community School System (CCSS) board member Jim Lloyd invoked a 2005 teacher survey in recommending the adoption of CCSS’s stealth creationism policy. He said (mp3, 12:50) that a Louisiana teacher organization, the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, had “polled its members and learned that a large percentage of them welcomed guidance concerning how to better teach controversial science subjects.” The controversial subject is, of course, evolution.

After sitting on information about this survey for seven years, waiting for a relevant occasion to use it, we now present it to our readers. It is NOT a project with which any respectable teacher organization should have been involved. As Colonel Sherman Potter used to say on MASH, it’s a load of pony pucks. So naturally, the Discovery Institute and the Louisiana Family Forum are involved.

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By Barbara Forrest

There are times when the irony of life is so thick that one has to just stand back and marvel at it. Now is one of those times in Louisiana. June 25, 2010, marked exactly two years to the day since Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA). Now, with coastal wildlife trapped and dying in sludge, with the human beings of the Gulf Coast facing the loss of culture, livelihoods, and our beautiful wetlands — courtesy of BP — Gov. Jindal felt called to set aside June 27 as an official day of prayer for divine assistance in “persevering” through this mess — and to post the call to prayer on his official state website. In 2008, his constituents couldn’t even get him to acknowledge the letters he got from scientists and citizens who asked him to veto the LSEA. But now, with the Gulf of Mexico hemorrhaging oil, he was only too happy to sign an official proclamation declaring a “Statewide Day of Prayer for Perseverance Through Oil Spill Crisis” [pdf]. The irony of this is as thick as the oil in the Gulf. Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

UPDATE 7.10.09: Readers can see Barton’s “expert” review of the Texas social studies standards, as well as those of the other reviewers, here. Barton does not believe that scientist Carl Sagan was of sufficient scientific stature to be included among the scientists about whom Texas students should learn:

In Grade 5 (b)(24)(A), there are certainly many more notable scientists than Carl Sagan – such as Wernher von Braun, Matthew Maury, Joseph Henry, Maria Mitchell, David Rittenhouse, etc.

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Supporters of science education both in Louisiana and around the country have scratched their heads in perplexity, trying to figure out how Gov. Bobby Jindal, who earned an undergraduate degree in biology at Brown University, one of the country’s finest Ivy League schools, could sign the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act [pdf]. They wonder how he can support the teaching of intelligent design, a form of creationism which has been thoroughly discredited by competent scientists and scholars. Only the governor can definitively answer this question. But if there is any truth in the old adage, “You are judged by the company you keep,” knowing something about the people with whom the governor keeps company offers at least partial insight into why he signed Louisiana’s creationism bill last year. David Barton is one of those people. Who is David Barton?

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