The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology has joined the chorus of voices asking that Louisiana legislature repeal the "academic freedom" legislation passed this last year. According to the story in Flesh and Stone:
The SVP states that the law was passed “under the guise of ‘academic freedom’” but that its real intention is to “garner support and legal protection for the introduction of religious, creationist concepts, including intelligent design, in public school science curricula. By permitting instructional materials that are not reviewed by the state’s science standards committees, the Louisiana Act and those like it encourage teachers and administrators to work outside these standards. This makes it possible for local school boards to define science and science education to suit their own agendas, thereby compromising the quality of science education for students, and allowing religious discrimination in America’s public school science classrooms.”
Perhaps if enough pressure is placed on the legislature, they might reverse the laws but I would not hold my breath. These ideas are very deeply, often irrationally, entrenched.
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