Academic Freedom Laws: Implications and Controversies

1. Several states have been considering“Academic Freedom"laws which will enable and/or require the teaching of alternatives Darwin’s theory for theOrigin of Man

2. Governor Jindal has signed it into law in Louisiana He was being promoted by the Republicans as their answer to Obama

3. The Scientific Community overlooks the machinations of the Discovery Institute at its peril

5. The Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal.

6. A number of states have been considering "academic freedom," laws which single out evolution for special criticism.

7. Happy Bobby

8. Rep. Ben Nevers chief sponsor of the bill heatedly denied that the scheme is intended to smuggle religion into the classroom.

9. What can he know or care about Science?

10. He is a deacon at Memorial Baptist Church in Bogalusa.

11. A number of states have been considering "academic freedom," laws which single out evolution for special criticism.

12. But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday.

13. Most of them haven't made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed..

14. Rep. Ben Nevers (D- Bogalusa) is the chief sponsor of the bill, and he heatedly denied that the scheme is intended to smuggle religion into the classroom.

15. Nevers is a deacon at Memorial Baptist Church in Bogalusa.He has owned Nevers Electrical Contracting for 23 years.He has served as a state representative for the 75th District since 1999.

16. Jindal, who was a biology major during his time at Brown University, even received a veto plea from his former genetics professor. "Without evolution, modern biology, including medicine and biotechnology, wouldn't make sense," Professor Arthur Landy wrote. "I hope he [Jindal] doesn't do anything that would hold back the next generation of Louisiana's doctors."

17. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.

18. a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of "academic freedom," single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven't made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed. But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday.

19. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.

20. Jindal, who was a biology major during his time at Brown University, even received a veto plea from his former genetics professor. "Without evolution, modern biology, including medicine and biotechnology, wouldn't make sense," Professor Arthur Landy wrote. "I hope he [Jindal] doesn't do anything that would hold back the next generation of Louisiana's doctors."

21. Nevers, a 56-year-old Democrat, is married and has three children.He graduated from Bogalusa High and the Louisiana Technical College system.Nevers is a deacon at Memorial Baptist Church in Bogalusa.He has owned Nevers Electrical Contracting for 23 years.He has served as a state representative for the 75th District since 1999.

22. Louisiana House Education Committee Unanimously Passes Academic Freedom Bill Baton Rouge, LA – Yesterday the Louisiana House Education Committee unanimously passed SB 733, an academic freedom bill. The bill requires that Louisiana schools shall "create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes 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." The passage followed testimony from four Ph.D. scientists, including three biologists, who testified in favor of the bill.

23. Louisiana House Education Committee Unanimously Passes Academic Freedom Bill Baton Rouge, LA – Yesterday the Louisiana House Education Committee unanimously passed SB 733, an academic freedom bill. The bill requires that Louisiana schools shall "create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes 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." The passage followed testimony from four Ph.D. scientists, including three biologists, who testified in favor of the bill.

24. The Washington Posthad it exactly right earlier this week. “No one would think it acceptable for a teacher to question the existence of gravity or to suggest that two plus two equals anything but four,” The Post editorialized. “It’s mystifying, then, that a movement to undermine the teaching of evolutionary biology is attracting some support. Equally perverse is that this misguided effort is being advanced under the false guise of academic freedom

25. As we noted last month, a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of "academic freedom," single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven't made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed. But the last of these bills under consideration, the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), was enacted by the signature of Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday. The bill would allow local school boards to approve supplemental classroom materials specifically for the critique of scientific theories, allowing poorly-informed board members to stick their communities with Dover-sized legal fees.

26. Lining up to promote the bill were a coalition of religious organizations and Seattle's pro-Intelligent Design think tank, the Discovery Institute. According to the Louisiana Science Coalition, Discovery fellows helped write the bill and arranged for testimony in its favor in the legislature. The bill itself plays directly into Discovery's strategy, freeing local schools to "use supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner."

27. Discovery, conveniently, has made just such a supplemental text available. As we noted in our earlier analysis, Discovery hopes to use these bills as a way to push its own textbook into the classroom. Having now read the text of the book, it is clear that our earlier analysis was correct; the book badly misrepresents the scientific community's understanding of evolution in order to suggest that the basics of the theory are questioned by biologists. In doing so, it ignores many of the specific questions about evolution that are actively debated by scientists.

28. As such, most observers are expecting the passage of the LSEA by the state to unleash a series of Dover-style cases, as various local boards attempt to discover the edges of what's constitutionally allowable. The AAAS' Leshner suggested that the bill's passage would "provoke an expensive, divisive legal fight." In vetoing similar legislation in Oklahoma, Governor Brad Henry suggested it would end up "subjecting them [school officials] to an explosion of costly and protracted litigation that would have to be defended at taxpayers' expense." In essence, Jindal is inviting local school boards to partake in that explosion without committing the state to paying the inevitable costs. In the meantime, the students of the state will be subjected to an "anything goes" approach to science—if it looks scientific to a school board, it can appear in the classroom

29. One candidate helped by Barton in 2006 was Bobby Jindal. During Jindal's gubernatorial campaign, Barton appeared with him at churches in Louisiana, and, on October 18 and 19, 2006, had Jindal on his WallBuildersLIVE! radio show for a two part interview. Referring in the opening comments of the program to Jindal's election to Congress two years earlier, Barton remarked, "That is the election in which we saw a huge increase in Christian voter turnout, and he is part of that product of what we were able to put in office in 2004." Jindal said of his church campaign appearances with Barton the weekend before the interview, "Let me tell you, Dave did a fantastic job -- went to three churches with us, just reminding us of our nation's history, our nation's heritage. You know, I listen to him. I learn something new on every Capitol tour, at every presentation. The response was tremendous -- people just telling me that every single stop, every single church -- they said they learned so much..." The primary topic of Jindal's 2006 WallBuildersLIVE! interview was going to be faith-based initiatives, so Barton primed his audience by giving them a dose of made up history on the subject:

30. In Mr. Jindal’s case, however, the facts are clear. Mr. Jindal wrote the story himself, and when he was a Rhodes Scholar, his story, “Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare,” was published in the December 1994 edition of the New Oxford Review. As a two-time candidate for Louisiana Governor, Mr. Jindal should certainly understand that his published writing, particularly an essay published in an esteemed journal, is relevant for discussion. However, judging by his campaign’s response, he is clearly embarrassed or unwilling to speak about an experience that, only thirteen years prior, he enthusiastically shared with the readership of the New Oxford Review.