Louisiana Bill Designed To Prevent Teaching Of Creationism Tabled

Louisiana’s Senate Bill 26 was tabled on a 3-2 vote in the Senate Committee on Education on May 1, effectively killing the bill in committee, according to New Orleans' The Times-Picayune.

The bill, if enacted, would repeal the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act, which allows teachers to introduce “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials” meant to “help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner,” according to the law.

Although the Act prohibits the use of materials promoting religious doctrine, opponents of the legislation argue that it allows teachers to question accepted scientific theories for religious reasons.

“The LSE Act is a bad law, not because of its spirit, but because of its failure to provide the necessary restrictions, standards, and guidelines required in order for the original intent to be successfully realized,” Tammy Wood, a local teacher who received the 1991 Louisiana Presidential Award for science education, told The Times-Picayune.

Since 2008, two of the state's parishes have sought to invoke the law to support proposals to teach creationism, as well as to confront the treatment of evolution in biology textbooks proposed for adoption by the state, according to the National Center for Science Education.

In fact, when speaking to NBC News in April, the state’s governor openly stated that the Act permits the teaching of creationism, including intelligent design.

“I’ve got no problem if a school board, a local school board, says we want to teach our kids about creationism, that people, some people, have those beliefs as well, let’s teach them about intelligent design,” Gov. Bobby Jindal said, asking “What are we scared of?”

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 and the American Society for Cell Biology, among others.