Thursday, February 19, 2009

Louisiana: the First Casualty

There is a story in BeliefNet news reporting that a major scientific organization is bypassing New Orleans for its annual convention in 2011. Bill Barrow writes:

A national organization of scientists has informed Gov. Bobby Jindal that it will not hold its annual convention in Louisiana as long as the recently adopted science curriculum standards remain on the books.

The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology told Jindal that its executive committee chose Salt Lake City for its 2011 convention over New Orleans "in large part" because of the science standards. The letter from society president Richard Satterlie is posted on the group's Web site under the headline: "No Thanks, New Orleans."

Here is a link to the letter, in which he states that SB 561 undermines science and science education. One hopes that Jindal will take notice. One also hopes that other scientific organizations will consider doing this as well. When science is co-opted by politicians, nothing good can come of it.

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