Thoughts in a Haystack

The Textbook/Media/Library Advisory Council of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has voted to recommend actual life science textbooks for high school students, instead of thinly veiled religious hymnals.

The Louisiana Family Forum, an affiliate of James Dobson's Focus on the Family, has apparently been organizing opposition to the quaint notion that we should teach children science so they can make a living in the future other than flipping hamburgers for Chinese tourists.

The council, made up of educators and lawmakers (say what?), voted 8-4 to ignore the complaints about textbooks that had the temerity to say that evolution is science and ignore Intelligent Design Creationism. It cannot come as a surprise that one of the votes against the recommendation was Ben Nevers, the primary sponsor of the "Louisiana Science [Mis]Education Act."

Of course, the recommendations still has to go to the Board, the record of which is not confidence-inspiring.
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