By an 8-2 margin, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted yesterday to approve Biology textbooks, despite demands from religious conservatives to question the validity of evolution in, and add intelligent design to the curriculum. The National Center for Science Education has more:
At the committee meeting, the New Orleans Times-Picayune (December 8, 2010) reported, "Opponents of the texts, led by the Louisiana Family Forum, said the theory of evolution is full of holes and that biology texts should encourage students to think critically about the origins of man," and quoted the president of the LFF as saying that the textbooks "are biased and inaccurate when covering controversial scientific topics." But Barbara Forrest, a founder of the Louisiana Coalition for Science and a member of NCSE's board of directors, replied, "Every claim you hear today from the Louisiana Family Forum and its allies — without a single exception — has been refuted over and over again, in state after state, and in federal court, over almost 50 years…
It's nice to see Louisiana stand up for the principle that science experts and not religious beliefs should determine the science curriculum in our public schools. There are appropriate classes for teaching *about* religion and religious ideas. Biology isn't one of them.
