Friday, January 16, 2009

Louisiana: A Few More Unanswered Questions

A story on KATC.com reveals a bit more about the angst that the science teachers are feeling about the new Board of Elementary and Secondary Education guidelines in Louisiana regarding "academic freedom":

Before Thursday's vote, Marjorie Esman, the executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said the guidelines don't include enough detail about the procedure for challenging supplemental materials introduced into science classes.

Esman said questions also remained about whether challenged materials could be used by teachers until the objection was heard by education leaders.

"Nobody under these provisions will know what to do, not the parent, not the teacher, not the school," she said.

State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek said the education department has detailed plans for how to handle objections."We spent a great deal of time with our lawyers," he said.

Pastorek offered the department's lawyers to meet with Esman. He said if she has further problems, she can present those to BESE at a later meeting, and Esman agreed.

Opponents of the law have predicted it likely will result in a lawsuit.

Yup.

No comments:

Post a Comment