Texas board chief wants creationist science books

If there is one single person who can influence the contents of every science textbook in America, it is the chairman of the Texas Board of Education. Because Texas buys so many books, the publishers are always anxious to please the Lone Star State. And because they won't publish different texts for every state, schools all over the U.S. wind up learning what Texas says belongs in the book.

The chairman of the Texas Board of Education believes that God created the Earth less than 10,000 years ago, and he wants the science books in his state to be friendly to his creationist bent.

The opening paragraph of this story by Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Simon gives us a glimpse of what is in store for our students:

The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science
curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that
could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.

Mardi Gras catch-up edition

While most of us were catching beads, the rest of the world proceeded as usual these past few days. Here are a few of the things we missed:

Writer says that charter schools are an attack on public education

In a well-sourced article, writer Sarah Knopp builds a case that the charter school movement has become a front for the privatization of public education. She quotes an article by education writer Jonathan Kozol as saying “the education industry represents the largest market opportunity” since health-care services were privatized during the 1970’s....

With citations ranging from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman to AFT's own Al Shanker, she builds the case that the financiers and big thinkers behind the present-day charter movement are the same people who really want vouchers. Charters, she says, are an intermediate step because vouchers are so unpopular.

Knopp throws down the gauntlet with some big statements:

When charters do succeed, it’s because they have lots of extra money. All
schools should have access to these extra funds—especially the ones that need it
most!

Charters choose their students, which decreases the amount of power and due
process that students and parents have. They are more likely to exclude English
language learners and special education students. They pursue a different goal
than fighting for quality education for all.

Schools will be better when teachers are paid more and the profession is
more attractive. Teachers’ unions are a fundamental part of winning this; and
the charter school movement is an attack on these unions.

It's a long article, and there's stuff about New Orleans in it, too. A bracing wake-up call after Fat Tuesday.

Monroe teachers might get back some of the money they were cheated out of

In Monroe, where Mardi Gras isn't such a big deal, the Free Press has an article that begins with this statement: "City teachers may get back half of what the school system cheated them out of last year, but that’s if the governor doesn’t make serious cuts to public education in his budget. "

Monroe Federation President Sandie Lollie told the Free Press that some teachers are owed as much as $2,400 by the board.

Creationism is costing New Orleans tourist dollars

New Orleans CityBusiness reporter Stephen Maloney writes about the money lost to the city's tourism industry because of the law with the misleading moniker "Louisiana Science Education Act."

Scientific organizations are backing away from holding conventions in the Big Easy, saying the creationism-friendly law sends a bad signal to intelligent life everywhere. What's at stake for the city? One convention, which will be held in April because it is too late to change venues, expects to bring $15.2 million to the city. They won't be back again.

Furloughs on the table for LSU faculty

Advocate reporter Jordan Blum quotes LSU Chancellor Michael Martin as saying that he may ask the legislature to approve furloughs and layoffs at the state's flagship university.

Jindal wants to reject federal stimulus funds

Governor Bobby Jindal picked the Friday before Mardi Gras to announce that he will turn down almost $100 million in federal stimulus funds. There's no better time to say something that you don't want people to hear. His announcement did not escape the attention of Times-Picayune capitol bureau chief Robert Travis Scott, who managed to find some state leaders willing to forgo the party long enough to question the governor's judgment.

On Wednesday, lawmakers got it together and called a press conference to criticize Jindal's response to President Obama's address to Congress. While most of Louisiana probably missed the governor's impression of Mr. Rogers, it didn't get past some legislators that, as Advocate reporter Michelle Millhollon put it in this article, the governor is guilty "of allowing his political ambitions to dictate his response to the federal economic package."

Scientists won't meet in New Orleans

Citing last year's controversial "Louisiana Science Education Act," one of the nation's leading scientific organizations has cancelled plans to host a convention in New Orleans.

As Advocate reporter Will Sentell writes here, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology's 2,300 members will boycott the state because of legislative efforts to bring creationism into science classrooms through a back door.

The bill's supporters feign shock that anyone would think they have a religious agenda. The act is only an effort to "expand the opportunity to teach pure science in the classroom," they say.

But the people behind the act have a history of deceptive tactics and a most unChristian attitude toward the truth about their intentions. Here is a story about how they tore a community apart.

Creationists swarm BESE meeting

Religious fundamentalists swarmed a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meeting today, hoping to ensure that new guidelines for teaching science meet their approval.

The board met to implement guidelines mandated by the legislature, ostensibly to guarantee open debate of scientific issues, but believed by many to be an effort to bring religious beliefs into the classroom.

When the issue was debated in the legislature, it was clear that the objective of the bill's supporters was to offer religious explanations alongside scientific theories of human evolution.

Under pressure from the religious activists, the board deleted proposed language that specifically forbade “creationism or intelligent design or (theories) that advance the religious belief that a supernatural being created humankind.”

Courts - including the U.S. Supreme Court - have ruled that teaching religious explanations for natural phenomena in science class violates the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.

Supporters of the bill disingenuously claimed that their plan is not about religion at all, but is intended to make sure that all scientific viewpoints are heard by students.

That prompted LFT President Steve Monaghan to call the guidelines “a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist” because teachers are already encouraged to use alternative materials and present competing theories (as long as they are scientifically valid).

Gannett reporter Mike Hasten covered the meeting for this story. Steve May, editor of The Independent in Lafayette, authored this editorial in opposition to the teaching of religion in science classes.