Louisiana Science Education Act

The Louisiana Science Education Act is a law that was passed by the Louisiana Legislature in June 2008. It was then signed by Governor Bobby Jindal.

The national and international scientific community recognizes the Louisiana Science Education Act to be an anti-evolution law whose purpose is to allow creationism into public school science classrooms.[1] There is an attempt to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act in progress.

Contents

Background

Academic freedom

The Louisiana Science Education Act is an "Academic Freedom law," a bill meant to undermine the teaching of evolution in public school science classrooms.[2] The campaign to pass such laws is run by the Discovery Institute, a think tank which advocates for teaching intelligent design creationism. The purpose of this type of legislation is to circumvent court rulings in cases such as Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) and Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District (2005) which invalidated the teaching of creationism and intelligent design creationism in public school science classes.[3][4][5][6] Louisiana is the only state that has passed a law of this type.

The language in the Louisiana Science Education Act was originally derived from the Discovery Institute’s Model Academic Freedom Statute.[7] This language has also been used in Ouachita Parish’s Science Curriculum Policy,[8] and the Santorum Amendment, which did not become law.[9]

Passage of the Act

A bill (SB 561) named the "Louisiana Academic Freedom Act," was pre-filed on March 21, 2008 in the Louisiana Senate by the Education Committee chair, Ben Nevers, a Bogalusa Democrat.[10] On 21 April 2008 Representative Frank Hoffman, a Republican who was the assistant superintendent of the Ouachita Parish school system at the time it adopted its earlier anti-evolution Academic Freedom policy, introduced an identical bill into the Louisiana House of Representatives (HB 1168).[11] On April 22, 2008, the “Louisiana Academic Freedom Act" was renamed the "Louisiana Science Education Act" (and renumbered SB 733), and passed the Senate unanimously on April 28, 2008.[12] On June 11, 2008 the House bill was passed by a vote of 94-3. In late June 2008 Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed the bill into law, despite his Brown University genetics professor imploring him to veto the law and to not “do anything that would hold back the next generation of Louisiana's doctors."[13]

Dr. Barbara Forrest, a prominent critic of the Discovery Institute and the intelligent design movement, has explained that she thinks the law itself passed because,

"In Louisiana, we had no organizational framework to respond to [the Louisiana Science Education Act]. One of the ways that Florida, for example, has kept [creationism] out is they have a very active, well organized Florida Citizens for Science. At the time we didn’t have that. I and a couple of people, very, very quickly, had to get something together. [Although] there weren’t very many of us… we did put up some opposition, but Louisiana Family Forum had been planning such a move probably since their founding in 1998."[14]

Creationism

Critics of the Louisiana Science Education Act call the law a creationism law, because it singles out specific scientific theories, which happen to be political controversies for teachers to “critique and review” using “supplemental materials.” The theories in question include “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and cloning.”[15]

Jerry Coyne, a prominent biologist and President of the Society for the Study of Evolution sarcastically illustrated what he perceived as problematic about the law by saying,

“Yep, we don’t need more critical thinking in areas like physics, chemistry, or medicine—just human cloning, evolution, and global warming.”[16]

Prominent critic of the law, Zack Kopplin explained,

“You don't need a law to teach critical thinking. That's what science is. You need a law to teach creationism.”[17]

Another prominent critic, Dr. Barbara Forrest, is also wary of the law because the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's initial draft policy to implement the Louisiana Science Education Act was changed under pressure from a local conservative Christian group, the Louisiana Family Forum. The initial draft would have explicitly prohibited teaching religion under the guise of 'critical thinking' and using creationist materials in public school science classrooms. Dr. Forrest said,

“The initial version[18] of the policy contained two crucial statements that would have prohibited school districts from doing what the legislative sponsors and creationist authors of the LA Science Education Act designed the law to allow them to do: (1) “Religious beliefs shall not be advanced under the guise of encouraging critical thinking”; and (2) “Materials that teach creationism or intelligent design or that advance the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind shall be prohibited for use in science classes.”

[President of the Louisiana Family Forum, Rev. Gene Mills] referred to these statements as expressing “religious hostility” and “a cheap shot.” In doing so, he revealed his true intent concerning both the LSEA and the BESE policy: to promote and protect the religious agenda of the LA Family Forum and its Discovery Institute accomplices. If, as Mills keeps insisting, the LSEA were only intended to promote good science education and not to promote creationism, there would be no reason for him to object to the initial policy’s prohibition against teaching “creationism or intelligent design or that advance the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind.”

In the revised policy[19] introduced at the S/SPS Committee meeting on January 13, 2009, the first statement had been deleted prior to the meeting. To the second statement, another had been added: “Evaluations of supplementary materials shall be made without regard to the religious or non-religious beliefs and affiliations of the authors of supplementary materials.” This new sentence was clearly added to prohibit any supplemental material from being challenged based on its having been authored by creationists.”[20]

The Americans United for Separation of Church and State is also worried about the process for parents to challenge supplemental materials brought into the classroom, because “the proposed procedure for reviewing challenged supplemental materials... appears designed to provide a forum for promoting creationism.[21]

Also, supporters of the law have openly admitted that its purpose is to bring creationism into public school science classrooms. In July 2010, the Livingston Parish school board discussed using this law to teach creationism in public school science class. The National Center for Science Education reported,

The director of curriculum for [Livingston Parish] reportedly told the board that, under the Louisiana Science Education Act, schools are allowed to present "critical thinking and creationism" in science classes. The response from the board was enthusiastic, with David Tate asking, "Why can't we get someone with religious beliefs to teach creationism?" and Clint Mitchell adding, "Teachers should have the freedom to look at creationism and find a way to get it into the classroom."[22]

Senator Ben Nevers, the sponsor of the Louisiana Science Education Act, has also said that the Louisiana Family Forum suggested the bill because “They believe that scientific data related to creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory.”[23]

The law was written with a caveat: it says that it should not be construed "to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion."

Critics like James Gill, who writes for the New Orleans Times Picayune dismiss this clause. Gill says the line was “written with a nod and a wink, and it just goes to show how much craftier the obscurantists have become.”[24] This wording is a religion disclaimer from the Discovery Institute’s model bill and is in all of the different variants of the bill in every state where it has been introduced.

Backlash

In February 2009 the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology announced that it would not hold its 2011 conference in New Orleans "in large part" because of the Act, and because of their "firm opinion ... that this law undermines the integrity of science and science education in Louisiana."[25]

Prominent critic of the Louisiana Science Education Act, Zack Kopplin, has stated that the law “leaves our students at a disadvantage when competing for jobs in the global economy.[26] To illustrate this, he often humorously refers to the fact that when you search creationism on Monster.com or CareerBuilder you get “zero jobs,” while when you search biology, you find over 1000.[27]

Repeal effort

In early June 2010, a student at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, Zack Kopplin, became fed up with the Louisiana Science Education Act. He decided to try to repeal the law as his high school senior project. He started working on a repeal with Barbara Forrest, who was an expert witness at the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial and was responsible for demonstrating intelligent design was simply creationism dressed up to appear scientific.[27]

According to Kopplin, he is organizing Louisiana “students, scientists, clergy, teachers, and business leaders in support of repealing the Louisiana Science Education Act.”[28]

They convinced Senator Karen Carter Peterson, a Democrat from New Orleans, to sponsor their repeal bill. Representative Walt Leger III, who represents part of Senator Peterson’s district, agreed to handle the legislation in the House. Senator Peterson introduced SB 70 to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act on April 14, 2011.[29]

The repeal effort gained support nationally and internationally. It is supported by over 60 Nobel laureate scientists, the City of New Orleans, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest general science organization in the world with over 10 million members, and many other organizations. The list from Kopplin's website[30] is reproduced here:

Cities:

  • The city of New Orleans. The city council voted unanimously (7-0) in support of repealing the Louisiana Science Education Act.[31]
Clergy: Scientists: Organizations of Educators: National Science Organizations:

SB 70 was heard in the Senate Education Committee on May 26th, 2011. After a heated debate, where in response to being presented the Nobel laureate letter, Senator Julie Quinn declared she was “tired of seeing little letters behind everyone’s names,”[45] the Senate Education Committee voted 5-1 to defer action on SB 70, in effect killing it. The sole vote for SB 70 was Senator Yvonne Dorsey.[46] Despite being defeated this year, the leaders of the repeal have vowed to continue it next year.[47]

Legacy

Creationism

Nine anti-evolution bills bills were proposed in various legislatures in 2011. The effort to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act may have had an effect in dampening the pressure to pass those bills.[48]

Also, the Louisiana Coalition for Science was able to stop two new efforts to put creationism in Louisiana classrooms after the passage of the Louisiana Science Education Act. First, they convinced the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to adopt new biology books after creationists attempted to have the books thrown out. Then they also succeeded in killing a Louisiana House bill (HB 580) which was meant to weaken the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s oversight of public school biology books and supplementary materials.[49]

Presidential election of 2012

In late May, Zack Kopplin challenged Michele Bachmann to back up her 2006 statements[50] about Nobel laureate scientists who believed in intelligent design creationism. He challenged her to match the 44 Nobel laureates backing the repeal.[51] Because she chose not to answer the question when it was asked at the Republican Leadership Conference[26], creationism became an issue in the 2012 presidential election.[52]

See also

References

  1. ^ AAAS Writes Louisiana's Speaker of the House, Reiterating Opposition to Anti-Science Education Efforts
  2. ^ Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools
  3. ^ Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)
  4. ^ Understanding Creationism after Kitzmiller
  5. ^ Creationism’s Evolving Strategy
  6. ^ Verbatim Verbatim ’The Opinion Speaks for Itself.'
  7. ^ Model Academic Freedom Statute on Evolution
  8. ^ Ouachita Parish Science Curriculum Policy
  9. ^ Santorum Amendment Stripped from Education Bill
  10. ^ Antievolution legislation in Louisiana
  11. ^ HB 1168
  12. ^ SB 561
  13. ^ Science law could set tone for JindalLouisiana passes first antievolution "academic freedom" law
  14. ^ Interview with Barbara Forrest, Defender of Evolution
  15. ^ SB 733
  16. ^ The Louisiana “Science Education Act”: letter to Governor Jindal and request for reader action
  17. ^ MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews: High School Student takes on Administration
  18. ^ Student/School Performance and Support Committee, Dec. 2, 2008
  19. ^ Student/School Performance and Support Committee, Jan. 13, 2009
  20. ^ Louisiana Open for Business -- Creationists Welcome
  21. ^ Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s Letter to the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
  22. ^ Creationist rumblings in Louisiana
  23. ^ Bill allows teaching creationism as science
  24. ^ Louisiana’s Science Education Act lacking in science
  25. ^ The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s letter to Governor Jindal
  26. ^ Legislation filed to repeal Louisiana’s creationism law
  27. ^ a b Evolving as a Leader
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