REPEAL EFFORTS FAILS AGAIN IN LOUISIANA
Louisiana’s Senate Bill 26 was tabled on a 3-2 vote in the Senate Committee on Education on May 1, 2013, which effectively kills the bill in committee, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune (May 1, 2013). The bill, introduced by Karen Carter Peterson (D-District 5), would, if enacted, repeal Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:285.1, which implemented the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, passed and enacted in 2008, and thus opened the door for scientifically unwarranted criticisms of evolution and climate science to be taught in the state’s public schools. It was the third bill of its kind, following SB 374 in 2012 and SB 70 in 2011.
The law targeted for repeal calls on state and local education administrators to help to promote “critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning”; these four topics were described as controversial in the original draft of the legislation. It also allows teachers to use “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner” if so permitted by their local school boards.
Since 2008, antievolutionists have not only sought to undermine the law’s provision allowing challenges to unsuitable supplementary materials, but have also reportedly invoked the law to support proposals to teach creationism in at least two parishes—Livingston and Tangipahoa—and to attack the treatment of evolution in biology textbooks proposed for adoption by the state. Recently, speaking to NBC News on April 12, 2013, Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal (R), who signed the bill into law over the protests of the state’s scientific and educational communities, acknowledged that the LSEA allows teachers to “teach our kids about creationism.”
Among those testifying in favor of the repeal was Zack Kopplin, who was quoted by the Associated Press (May 1, 2013) as describing the LSEA as “about going back into the Dark Ages, not moving forward into the 21st [c]entury,” adding, “Louisiana students deserve to be taught sound science and that means the theory of evolution, not creationism.” Tammy Wood, a Zachary-area science teacher, highlighted the failure of the LSEA to provide “the necessary restrictions, standards, and guidelines” to avoid its misuse to promote “mere nonsense masquerading as a viable alternative.” The complete video of the hearing is available on-line.
In advance of the hearing, Kopplin published two op-eds arguing for the repeal. Writing in the Guardian (May 1, 2013), he emphasized (in the words of the headline) “the cost of teaching creationism—in reputation and dollars” to the state: “Any state that passes a creationism law will harm their students and drive scientists—and business—away.” Writing at MSNBC (May 1, 2013), he addressed Governor Jindal directly: “it’s time to take your own advice and actually lead the Republican Party toward being a smarter party by endorsing evidence-based science, and the repeal of Louisiana’s creationism law.”
Among those endorsing the repeal effort are 78 Nobel laureate scientists, the National Association of Biology Teachers, the Louisiana Association of Biology Educators, the Louisiana Coalition for Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Biological Sciences, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Society for the Study of Evolution together with the Society of Systematic Biologists and the American Society of Naturalists, the Clergy Letter Project, the New Orleans City Council, and the Baton Rouge Advocate.
For the text of Louisiana’s Senate Bill 26 as introduced (PDF), visit:
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=828787&n=SB26%20Original
For the story in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, visit:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/la_creationism_science_educati.html
For NCSE’s story on Jindal’s connecting the LSEA with creationism, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/2013/04/jindal-connects-dots-0014809
For the Associated Press story (via the Alexandria Town Talk), visit:
http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20130502/NEWS01/305020026/Louisiana-senators-reject-repeal-Science-Education-Act
For the video of the committee’s hearing, visit:
http://senate.la.gov/Video/2013/May/050113EDUC.asx
For Kopplin’s op-eds in the Guardian and at MSNBC, visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/01/louisiana-cost-teaching-creationism
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/01/as-creationism-law-comes-up-for-repeal-an-appeal-to-bobby-jindal/
And for NCSE’s previous coverage of events in Louisiana, visit:
http://ncse.com/louisiana
HANSEN RECEIVES RIDENHOUR COURAGE PRIZE
NCSE is delighted to congratulate James E. Hansen on receiving the Ridenhour Courage Prize for 2013. Hansen was recognized “for bravely and urgently telling the truth about climate change, even when the Bush administration tried to silence and penalize him as director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Rather than giving in, or giving up, Dr. Hansen—one of the world’s most tireless and articulate activists—has courageously and continuously led the fight to save the planet ever since.” A member of NCSE’s Advisory Council, Hansen recently resigned as the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute after thirty-two years.
The Ridenhour Courage Prize is presented to an individual in recognition of his or her courageous and life-long defense of the public interest and passionate commitment to social justice, and carries with it a $10,000 stipend. The prize is awarded by the Fertel Foundation and the Nation Institute in memory of the investigative journalist Ron Ridenhour, who brought the horrific events of the My Lai massacre to the attention of the American people in 1969. Previous recipients include John Lewis, Russ Feingold, Howard Zinn, Bob Herbert, Bill Moyers, Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, Seymour M. Hersh, and Daniel Ellsberg.
For the prize citation, visit:
http://www.ridenhour.org/prizes_courage_2013.html
EVOLUTION IN PENNSYLVANIA
In a wide-ranging article, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 28, 2013) discussed “the ill-kept secret about public school biology classrooms nationwide—that evolution often isn’t taught robustly, if at all.” In Pennsylvania as around the nation, “[f]aith-based belief in creationism and intelligent design continues to be discussed and even openly taught in public school classrooms, despite state curriculum standards.”
In a poll of Pennsylvania’s science teachers conducted by the paper in early 2013, 89.5% of respondents said that they believed in the theory of evolution, 13.3% in intelligent design, and 19.1% in creationism;
4.76% were not sure or expressed a different view. (Respondents were allowed to chose more than one option.) There were 105 respondents; further details of how the poll was conducted were not provided. Michael Berkman of Pennsylvania State University, who with Eric Plutzer and Julianna Pacheco conducted a rigorous national study of high school biology teachers on the topic of evolution in 2007, told the Post-Gazette that between 17 and 21 percent of teachers introduce creationism into the classroom, but added that the most alarming finding was the prevalence of teachers who “throw doubt [on] and downplay evolution” without introducing creationism. G. Kip Bollinger, who retired as scientific education consultant for the Pennsylvania Department of Education in 2004, observed that “Many school districts shy away from the controversy and many teachers don’t want to be the center of the controversy … So it’s not surprising that evolution is not given its due as an important theory of science. … I would receive letters written by congregations around the state decrying that evolution was included in the state’s science education standards.”
David Lampe, a professor of biology at Duquesne University, regularly polls his first-year biology students about their high school experience with learning evolution before his class begins. “His results indicate that a quarter to a third of freshmen claim to have had no instruction in evolution, with another third saying that only two class days or fewer were devoted to the topic. Only a third received three days or more of instruction on the topic.” Yet there are efforts underway to introduce a bill in the Pennsylvania legislature that “would allow teachers to teach alternative theories of evolution and climate change and other controversial topics, without facing sanctions.” As NCSE previously reported, these efforts follow on the heels of a series of presentations from young-earth and “intelligent design” creationists in a Murrysville, Pennsylvania, church. No such bill has yet been introduced, however. At the end of the presentations, the Post-Gazette noted, “a teacher in the audience submitted a written question asking … how a teacher can introduce creationism into the classroom without facing sanctions.” The answer, from the chief counsel from the Pennsylvania Family Institute, “which is spearheading the campaign for a Pennsylvania academic freedom bill,” was “There is a lot that a teacher can get away with in the classroom if you do it wisely and gently.” NCSE’s Joshua Rosenau described the bill as “a permission slip for teachers already teaching creationism to say that they are just encouraging critical thinking,” and Duquesne’s David Lampe challenged the “academic freedom” slogan directly, explaining, “It’s not freedom to say anything you want in the classroom. In the classroom, you are obligated to teach scientific facts and methods. It’s not a forum for teachers to go off and talk about whatever they want to.” Later, the Post-Gazette offered its editorial view, writing (April 30, 2013), “A science teacher who doesn’t accept evolution is like a math teacher who denies calculus,” and adding, “The ones who suffer from this breach in the wall of separation between church and state are the nation’s children. The urgent effort to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education are undone every time a teacher banishes scientific facts from a classroom.” The last antievolution legislation in Pennsylvania was House Bill 1007. If enacted, the bill would have allowed school boards to add “intelligent design” to any curriculum containing evolution and allowed teachers to use, subject to the approval of their board, “supporting evidence deemed necessary for instruction on the theory of intelligent design.” The bill received a hearing in the House Subcommittee on Basic Education in June 2005, but proceeded no further.
For the article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, visit:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/is-evolution-missing-link-in-some-pennsylvania-high-schools-685389/
For Berkman, Pacheco, and Plutzer’s 2008 article, visit:
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060124
For the editorial in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, visit:
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/editorials/reason-not-evolving-creationism-has-no-place-in-science-classes-685576
For the text of Pennsylvania’s House Bill 1007 in 2005, visit:
And for NCSE’s previous coverage of events in Pennsylvania, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/pennsylvania
Don’t forget to visit NCSE’s website—http://ncse.com—where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them.