Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, knows a good bit about science. He was a biology major at Brown University, one of the nation’s finest universities, and a Rhodes Scholar.
An excellent article in Slate explains how Jindal has sacrificed the principles of science for political expediency.
As the author notes, “…in his rise to prominence in Louisiana, he made a bargain with the religious right and compromised science and science education for the children of his state. In fact, Jindal’s actions at one point persuaded leading scientific organizations, including the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, to cross New Orleans off their list of future meeting sites (PDF).”
In 2008, Jindal signed the “Louisiana Science Education Act,” which undermined science by encouraging the teaching of creationism. Earlier this year, Jindal pushed through his voucher program, which will send millions of dollars to religious schools that teach only creationism.
University scientists have testified that they have lost strong candidates for faculty positions because scientists are reluctant to move to a state that is antagonistic to science. When you see what is happening in Louisiana, you can see why teachers need tenure–or they will be fired for teaching science. But of course, Jindal’s legislation took tenure away. To quote the article, ” Gov. Jindal has given wholehearted support to a program that will use public money to teach scientific nonsense to the young people of his state.”
What’s worrisome here is that Jindal is perceived as Romney’s spokesman on education, despite the fact that he has identified himself with hostility to science.
Some see Jindal as a contender for the vice-presidential nomination.
When you see how a man with the best education imaginable has sold out basic principle for political advantage, it makes you worry about the future of our nation.
Once again, here is a person who has benefitted from a decent education delivered by competent teachers, but would raze those things for others. It reminds me of armies burning crops and villages while on the march. Maybe, since he did so well in a rich curricular environment without excessive testing, that might work for others? Just an empirical observation, but I am no scientist.
Hmm. Bobby doesn’t want us to have effective education, Campbell Brown doesn’t want us to have due process in the face of groundless, ill motivated accusations. These people are making McCarthy and Roy Cohn look like moderates. Shameless, pandering apparatchiks of the rich. They should be teaching Zinn’s “History of the American People,” not this crap. Vidal was right – we’re no democracy right now, just a militarized republic. Whose leaders view effective education as subversive and dangerous.
Bobby Jindal doesn’t want Louisiana educators to have due process either.
You are right. That is what the unions are mainly for, to prevent teachers from being fired for things not related to their job—due process. He thinks we are day labor. Same reason he is getting rid of state workers. Can’t get rid of them like day labor either. Some rich millionaire needs to fund a good Democrat for all the seats held by Republicans in this state and save Louisiana. HELP YALL! GIVE US A LOUISIANA TEACHER WHO IS A LOTTERY WINNER . If Louisiana goes moderate so would Mississippi and maybe even Alabama.
We need to recognize that the current confluence of attacks on democracy, education, and science is far from being just a matter of bad luck.
See my blogical point of view on The Place Where Three Wars Meet.
More from the ACE Science Curriculum:
“Biblical and scientific evidence seems to indicate that men and dinosaurs lived at the same time…. Fossilized tracks in the bed of the Paluxy River near Glen Rose, Texas, also give evidence that men and dinosaurs existed simultaneously. Fossilized human footprints and three-toed dinosaur tracks occur in the same rock stratum…. That dinosaurs existed with humans is an important discovery disproving the evolutionists’ theory that dinosaurs lived 70 million years before man. God created dinosaurs on the sixth day. He created man later the same day.”
The ACE, (Accelerated Christian Education®) curriculum is being used in a number of Louisiana schools that receive public funding as a result of Jindal’s publicly funded voucher program.
ACE claims that it maintains “high Biblical and academic standards and remained committed to setting children on a path for success. The goal is the same today: to prepare children for the world today and give them the academic and spiritual tools necessary to achieve their God-given potential.”
and…
“In a desperate attempt to keep the ‘sinking ship’ of evolution afloat, recent ‘scientists’ have proposed a new theory. This theory states that certain organisms experienced (for some unexplained reason) a dramatic genetic disturbance that hurled them across the gap left by the missing links. This theory, called the ‘hopeful monster’ theory, has no scientific basis.” ( Accelerated Christian Education, Science 1107)
Some of Louisiana voucher schools may be using the science textbooks from the Bob Jones University Press. Disturbing is not the word for it.
http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Eye-Opening_Highlights_From_a_Creationist_Science_Textbook
Promoting a 21st Century (B.C.) Education …
electricity is everywhere, even in your bathwater, so don’t be afraid to dry your hair while taking a bath …
No, they didn’t say really say this, not in the part I read, anyway, but they might as well have, most of the stuff they say is far more dangerous to kids’ health …
Maybe Brown U. should apply loss aversion to Bobby J. — and revoke his biology degree.
Spaeking of leading American educators, Joe Paterno went to Brown and I don’t think Brown is doing anything about that except asking for his asterisked wins.
Trying to explain away creation, men thinking themselves wise become fools as they cling to unproven theories and call it science. If we evolved from monkeys, why are monkeys still here? If you don’t believe creation, you don’t believe in God. Maybe you don’t.
¿Qué estás tratando de decir?
That is sad. As much as Louisiana needs money and New Orleans needs convention business, Bobby, as usual acted against the best interest of his own people in order to meet the needs of his advisory hate group, Louisiana Family Forum and its extreme rightist affiliates who continue to elect him and other Republicans. How many kids went without new school shoes because their mamas didn’t work cleaning the hotel rooms when there were no conventions. Reminds me of when South Carolina would not change its state flag and lost the NAACP convention.
That is a beautiful website however Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. I’ll bet some biology teachers who really get to teach will latch onto it as supplementary materials for their classes. I liked the paper about fish who get out of the water and travel on land. Teachable moment for teachers who are always learning.
http://lasciencecoalition.org/
Published by admin on 11 Apr 2012 at 04:31 pm
Like Louisiana Needs More Bad Publicity
By Barbara Forrest
“One would think that after the Louisiana legislature passed and Bobby Jindal signed the creationist Louisiana Science Education Act in 2008, we folks down here in the Pelican State would get used to bad publicity. And the truth is, we are pretty used to it. But that doesn’t mean that we have totally lost our capacity for mortification when we hear more news that should make everyone down here blush from embarrassment. Dr. Len Bahr, a retired coastal scientist who writes the excellent Lacoastpost blog, now informs us that another — very highly paid — Louisiana public official is a creationist.
In his April 10, 2012, poast, “A Creationist in Science Clothes Takes the Reins at BRCC!,” Len informs us that Dr. Andrea Lewis Miller, recently appointed chancellor at Baton Rouge Community College (BRCC), admitted on the Jim Engster Show, a popular local radio program, that “I don’t believe in evolution!” BRCC does offer associate degrees in science, and we must add that there is no indication that anyone is teaching creationism in any of these classes. As far as we know, BRCC students are being taught science properly. This is especially important since BRCC credits are accepted at the state’s public four-year universities.
Ironically — and incredibly — Dr. Miller is a biologist by training, with master’s and doctoral degrees in cell and developmental biology. She is an absolutely beautiful lady, and we hope that she will be successful as BRCC chancellor. Her administrative capability may be superb. But we also hope that her views do not influence the teaching of science at BRCC and that she will support proper science education, in which the teaching of evolution is absolutely essential.”