The governor of Louisiana has signed SB 733, the “academic freedom” bill that many are worried will let religious ideas creep into science classrooms.
You can read an article about it here.
All I can say at the moment is that I hope Louisiana science educators use this as a way to get truly excellent scientific material into the classroom. NOVA’s “Judgment Day”, or the series online from PBS called “Evolution”, perhaps. By the way, you can look at those here.
An editorial in the New York Times calls on Bobby Jindal to veto SB 733.
The Sensuous Curmudgeon gives us an update on the efforts of the LA Coalition for Science, whose website now has a list of scientific organizations that have called upon Jindal to veto this legislation.
Again, to see how to contact the governor and read the brief email I sent him myself, go here.
The Louisiana Coalition for Science has posted their open letter to Governor Jindal on their website here. You can use this letter as a resource for drafting your own. You can email Governor Jindal at this site.
Though I am not a citizen of the state of Louisiana, I emailed Governor Jindal as well. Here is the text of my letter (feel free to adapt for your own purposes if you’d like):
Dear Governor Jindal:
As a concerned citizen in one of your neighboring states, I implore you to heed the letter sent to you recently regarding SB 733 from the LA Coalition for Science (http://lasciencecoalition.org). As a religious person and science teacher myself, I stand in agreement with the concerns that this legislation is deceptively seeking ways to bring non-scientific ideas into science classrooms.
I am sure you are in agreement with me that students in our country need a strong background in science. Supporting legislation aimed at teaching the “weaknesses” of theories will not lead to a strong background. To be sure, teachers needs to be showing students how to think for themselves, but at the same time we must provide them with a solid foundation of the facts as we currently know them.
Already creationist/intelligent design groups are trumpeting this bill as a victory for their agendas; they aim to use it to slide their own ideas into our science classrooms, even though their ideas are not scientific. This controversy is not a scientific controversy, but a political and religious one.
I pray you demonstrate your commitment to improving our students’ education by vetoing SB 733.
NY Times Science
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