Evolution talk cut from bill
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Gene Mills, executive director of the Louisiana Family Forum, said he has only lukewarm support for the legislation after it was changed and approved on Thursday by the Senate Education Committee.
State Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa and sponsor of the plan, denied that his proposal suffered a setback when a last-minute committee amendment was added.
The legislation is Senate Bill 561. It next faces action in the full Senate.
The bill, which was initially sought by Mills’ group, originally called for steps to widen classroom discussions on biological evolution, global warming, human cloning and other topics.
Backers said such a law is needed because teachers are afraid to stray from what textbooks say about evolution and other science topics.
Critics contend it would inject biblical talks into public schools.
Moments before the Senate committee approved the bill, the panel adopted an amendment suggested by opponents of the legislation.
It stripped references to evolution, global warming and other subjects from the proposal.
Instead, the proposed law calls for more general changes in science classes.
It now calls for state assistance so that students could pursue “critical thinking skills, logical analysis and open and objective discussions of scientific theories.”
Omitting evolution and other topics from the bill, he said, would leave teachers without confidence that they can have wide-open discussions on such issues.
“We want an explicit expression,” he said. “We wanted to hang out a sign that said academic inquiries welcomed.
Mills’ group describes itself as an advocate for traditional family values.
Barbara Forrest, a member of the board of trustees for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Nevers’ proposal still needs to be defeated.
“The bill itself is still a very problematic bill, a stealth creationism bill,” Forrest said.
Forrest’s organization calls itself a national watchdog group to prevent government-backed religious teaching.
Creationism is the view that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Intelligent design advocates, which critics contend are also behind the bill, believe that the universe stems from an intelligent designer rather than chance.
“The strategy now is to sanitize the terminology, which is what they did with the original bill and which they are doing now,” Forrest said.
Nevers’ bill also would allow teachers to use supplemental materials in science classes. Critics contend that some of those supplements challenge Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Nevers said that, even without specific mention of evolution, his bill would improve the way science is taught in Louisiana.
“We just want to make sure that science teachers understand that they are to teach science objectively.
“The reason I did not object to the amendment is it really did nothing to the bill,” he added.
But Tom Tate, a lobbyist for the Louisiana Association of Educators, disagreed.
Tate said stripping the specific mention of evolution and other topics from the legislation caused his group to go from opposed to neutral.
“It is a much cleaner bill,” Tate said. “I think we are just going to stay out of the battle.”
Asked for a comment from Gov. Bobby Jindal or for Jindal’s position on the bill, the governor did not respond but spokeswoman Melissa Sellers wrote in an e-mail:
“This is not an administration bill. The governor has always said that this regular session is the time for legislators to present their own initiatives and he looks forward to working with them.”
JULY 1981: Gov. Dave Treen signs law that requiring equal time on creationism when evolution is taught in public schools.
DECEMBER 1981: American Civil Liberties Union and others challenge constitutionality of law.
JUNE 1987: U.S. Supreme Court votes 7-2 to strike down Louisiana law on grounds it violated constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
MAY 2001: Louisiana House derails resolution that would have rejected Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which the legislation called “racist.”
APRIL 2008: Senate Education Committee approves bill to revamp the way evolution is taught in public schools.
Source: Files of The Advocate.
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