As has been reported elsewhere, the Louisiana Senate has approved a bill that would allow the teaching of creationism in public school science classes:

A bill to overhaul the way evolution is taught in Louisiana public schools easily cleared its final legislative hurdle Monday despite threats of a lawsuit.

Opponents, mostly outside the State Capitol, contend the legislation would inject creationism and other religious themes into public schools.

However, the Senate voted 36-0 without debate to go along with the same version of the proposal that the House passed last week 94-3.

The measure, Senate Bill 733, now goes to Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is expected to sign it.

Bobby Jindal is a religious loon who supports teaching intelligent design and claims to have exorcised a demon from the body of a friend, so of course he’s going to sign it.  Of course, this is bad news for students in Louisiana public schools, who now face the prospect of being taught that religious fantasy is science.  It is also bad news for any school districts in which creationism is taught, because they will be sued:

Lynn noted that Louisiana legislators have repeatedly tried to water down the teaching of evolution. In the 1980s, the state passed a law mandating “balanced treatment” between evolution and creationism. The measure was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1987. Some parishes in Louisiana have voted to paste “disclaimers” in science books, casting doubt on evolution.

“If this new law is used to promote religion in Louisiana public schools, I can guarantee there will be legal action,” Lynn said. “Louisiana students deserve better, and Louisiana taxpayers should not have their money squandered on this losing effort.”

Americans United and allied organizations successfully brought a lawsuit against the teaching of “intelligent design” creationism in Dover, Pa., public schools in 2005. That case ended with the Dover school board being required to pay significant legal fees.

This law will likely yield the following result:

1. Science teacher provides instruction on creationism in class.
2. School district is sued for violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
3. School district loses badly.
4. School district is forced to pay millions of dollars to cover plaintiffs’ legal costs.

This, of course, should have been obvious to Louisiana lawmakers after the Dover trial.  And now their ignorance and anti-rationalism are going to cost many children in Louisiana the chance for a quality education.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Creationism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.