Like cicadas on a seven-year life cycle, social conservatives are once again challenging the content of high school biology books for the state's public schools. Like cicadas on a seven-year life cycle, social conservatives are once again challenging the content of high school biology books for the state's public schools, arguing that too much deference is paid to evolution and none to intelligent design, according to an article in today's Advocate.
A panel of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to review the issue Friday after BESE delayed action on renewing biology textbooks at its most recent meeting. Textbooks for public schools are renewed every seven years through a committee process. The textbooks are made available for public perusal at public libraries statewide during the review process. In the case of high school biology books, state officials received a complaint from, among others, Baton Rouge resident Winston White, the son of Darrell White, co-founder of the Louisiana Family Forum.
"It is like Charles Darwin and his theory is a saint," the younger White tells The Advocate. "You can't touch it."
A Southeastern Louisiana University professor and co-founder of the LA Coalition for Science tells the newspaper she believes the LFF is behind the complaints about the textbooks: "They had their people going through the books, writing up complaints and sending them," say Barbara Forrest.
Read the full article here.