Louisiana Coalition for Science

By Barbara Forrest

Well, yet another 2011 creationist bill has died in committee: Kentucky House Bill 169 is caput. That makes four dead bills counting the one in New Mexico and the two in Oklahoma. Note, readers, that Kentucky is the state in which the young-earth creationist organization, Answers in Genesis, has misinformed upwards of one million people through its notorious “Creation Museum” and will soon expand its misinformation campaign, courtesy of public tax incentives, through its “Ark Encounter” theme park. Here is the HB 169′s obituary at the National Center for Science Education, and notice who got a mention here (our emphasis added) with respect to a bill that was introduced and died in Kentucky last year: Continue Reading »

By Barbara Forrest

New Mexico’s stealth creationist bill, HB 302, which in many respects closely tracked the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), has been tabled, meaning that it is dead for the current legislative session. The bill’s obituary was posted by the National Center for Science Education , and its demise was confirmed by a dedicated pro-science citizen in New Mexico who helped put it to sleep. This development should serve as an example to Louisiana legislators, who will have an opportunity in the upcoming regular session of the Louisiana legislature to send the LSEA to a similar fate by repealing it outright.

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By Barbara Forrest

Kentucky House Bill 397, a clone of the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act, is dead.

HB 397 (BR 1517) – T. Moore, J. Carney

AN ACT relating to science education and intellectual freedom.
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to encourage local district teachers and administrators to foster an environment promoting objective discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories; allow teachers to use, as permitted by the local board of education, materials in addition to state-approved texts and instructional materials for discussion of scientific theories including evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning; clarify that provisions do not promote religious doctrine or discrimination; provide that the section may be cited as the Kentucky Science Education and Intellectual Freedom Act.

Common sense has carried the day in the Bluegrass State! Continue Reading »