by Greg Mayer

In my previous post I noted that Zack Kopplin, at the time a Louisiana high school student and now a Rice University undergrad, has led efforts to repeal Louisiana’s creationist Science Education Act of 2008. Zack saw the post, and contacted Jerry, asking us here at WEIT to highlight some of the more recent and egregious actions of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. Zack has a post at his site with more details, but here are some of the lowlights. (By the way, Zack’s Facebook page is a more frequently updated account of developements on this front, and WEIT readers should follow there for the latest.) According to Zack,

My review of the Governor’s voucher program identifies at least 20 schools who use a creationist curriculum or blatantly promote creationism on their websites.  These 20 schools have been awarded 1,365 voucher slots and can receive as much as $11,602,500 in taxpayer money annually.

Among the most egregious is Northeast Baptist School, in West Monroe, which uses BJU Press science textbooks, one of which was highlighted in my previous post. Zack notes that the University of California won a lawsuit in 2010 that successfully defended its right to not accept high school credits from courses based on creationist textbooks. Faith Academy, in Gonzalez, has a student handbook that states that students must “defend creationism through evidence presented by the Bible verses traditional scientific theory.” (Their spelling is as bad as their science!) And taking the cake is Claiborne Christian School, also in West Monroe, where students are “taught to discern and refute lies commonly found in textbooks, college classrooms, and in the media”, and whose newsletter has approvingly cited the claim that scientists are “sinful men”. Each of these schools are eligible for hundreds of thousands of dollars of state support.

Gov. Jindal has recently gotten some good publicity for demanding that the Republicans “stop being the Stupid Party.” But as Newsweek’s John Avlon quickly noted, Jindal himself has presided over Louisiana’s plunge into creationism:

Marco Rubio said Earth’s age is a great mystery. Fellow rising star Bobby Jindal’s state teaches creationism alongside science. Both Republicans are preaching reform, but if they and others keep pivoting away from common-sense science, the GOP will remain the Stupid Party—and fail.

Jindal is promoting the “Stupid”, not preventing it.

Good luck to any student raised on this bilge trying to succeed in the 21st century. As the desperate Louisiana high school student pleaded to his science teacher, as the teacher explained creationism in the now classic Doonesbury comic, “Please stop. I’d like to get into a good college.”

by Greg Mayer

Andrew Kaczynski at Buzzfeed notes an AP story about how publicly-supported private schools in Louisiana are not required by state officials to meet state curriculum standards, and combines this with a sample of science textbook pages from (I’m not making this up) BJU Press, which offers “Christ-centered resources for education, edification, and evangelization”. An example:

It’s not clear from his piece, however, exactly what schools are using these materials. However, even if these schools were held to state standards, that wouldn’t be saying much in Louisiana, which passed its infamous, creationist Louisiana Science Education Act in 2008 (noted earlier by Jerry here at WEIT). A recent (2012) report on science education standards (also noted earlier by Jerry here at WEIT) sums up Louisiana’s condition:

The Louisiana science standards are reasonably challenging and comprehensive, but they suffer from a devastating flaw: Thanks to the state’s 2008 Science Education Act, which promotes creationism instead of science, the standards (especially for biology and life science) are haunted by anti-science influences that threaten biology education in the state.

(The report is especially damning because it comes from an otherwise conservative, anti-public school think tank.)

Efforts to repeal the law were begun almost immediately by Louisiana students and scientists, and have garnered an endorsement from 75 Nobelists. For the latest on the situation in Louisiana, follow the efforts of student Zack Kopplin at Repealing the Louisiana Science Education Act, and the work of the Louisiana Coalition for Science.