Louisiana Coalition for Science

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 its weekly e-newsletter, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has chronicled Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signing of SB 733, the stealth creationism bill known as the “LA Science Education Act.”
NCSE is a national clearinghouse that provides assistance to citizens who seek to protect the teaching of science in their public schools:

“The National Center for [...]

Gov. Jindal’s signing of SB 733 has attracted quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere. Here are excerpts from several nationally known blogs.

Daily Kos, June 29, 2008: “They Can Never Take Away Our FREEDOM!!!”

The Louisiana legislature should be more wary than most of the Dover trap: It was there, way back in 1987, that [...]

To all of our friends across the country who answered our call to write to the Louisiana legislature and to Gov. Jindal in opposition to SB 733, the “LA Science Education Act”:
In keeping with our southern tradition of good manners, we would like to thank all of the organizations and individuals who helped the LA [...]

Press Release: LA Coalition for Science, June 22, 2008

(1) New York Times editorial and major scientific societies call for Jindal’s veto of SB 733

(2) Escalating Discovery Institute involvement in promoting SB 733

Baton Rouge, LA, June 22, 2008 — The New York Times has noticed the Louisiana legislature’s passage of SB 733, the “LA Science Education [...]

Nine of the nation’s premier scientific societies have called upon Gov. Jindal to veto SB 733.

American Institute of Biological Sciences (pdf), co-signed by seven major scientific societies, June 13, 2008:

American Ornithologists Union
American Society of Mammalogists
Botanical Society of America
Natural Science Collections Alliance
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Society of Systematic Biologists
Society for the Study of Evolution

American Association [...]

Press Release (pdf) — LA Coalition for Science, June 16, 2008
The LA Coalition for Science invites all concerned citizens to join us in asking Gov. Jindal to veto SB 733.
E-mail: http://www.gov.la.gov/index.cfm?md=form&tmp=email_governor
Phone: 225-342-7015 or 866-366-1121 (Toll Free)
Fax: 225-342-7099
=====================================================================
LA Coalition for Science
June 16, 2008
Honorable Bobby Jindal
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Re: Veto of SB 733
Dear Governor Jindal:
SB 733, recently [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New group stands up for sound science education in Louisiana
LA Coalition for Science decries House support for SB 733, calls for Senate to reject bill
Baton Rouge, LA, June 11, 2008 — In response to numerous attacks on science education in the Bayou State, concerned parents, teachers and scientists are getting organized. The new [...]