Taxpayer dollars in Louisiana’s new voucher program will be paying to send children to schools that teach creationism and reject evolution, promoting a religious doctrine that challenges the lessons central to public school science classrooms.Even as public schools go wanting, and public universities lay off staff.
Several religious schools that will be educating taxpayer-subsidized students tout their creationist views. Some schools question whether the universe is more than a few thousand years old, openly defying reams of scientific evidence to the contrary.
"What they’re going to be getting financed with public money is phony science. They’re going to be getting religion instead of science,” said Barbara Forrest, a founder of the Louisiana Coalition for Science and a philosophy professor who has written about the clashes between religion and science.Yes, but we are not to worry.
Superintendent of Education John White says annual science tests required of all voucher students in the third through 11th grades will determine if children are getting the appropriate science education in the private school classrooms.After hundreds of thousands or even millions of state dollars have been given to schools that teach nonsensical science and leave their students ignorant.
“If students are failing the test, we’re going to intervene, and the test measures evolution,” White said.
[Governor] Jindal, who holds a college degree in biology, has supported the teaching of creationism, saying the theory of evolution has “flaws and gaps.”Jindal was also a Rhodes scholar, and how he made his way from his studies for a degree in biology from Brown University and his studies at the University of Oxford to his present opinion in support of creationism is a mystery.
How will the schools that teach creationism coach the students at testing time? Will the teachers say something like, "Well, you have to say that evolution is correct on the test, while you keep in mind that it's not really true"; in other words, will they coach the students to lie on the test? Or will they encourage the students to give back what they've been taught and risk not meeting state standards?
Yes, teaching a seven-day creation will certainly put the US's student at the top of the world's most educated nation list. It really is too bad those American Indians didn't just let those puritans die. The US would be in such a better place today.
ReplyDeletejames, the ignorance and the pandering by politicians to the ignorant make me want to tear my hair out.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable! I mean creationism and that your Rhodes Scholar Governor supports teaching it in schools.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, we Louisianians live daily with having to believe the unbelievable.
Deletehow he made his way from his studies for a degree in biology from Brown University and his studies at the University of Oxford to his present opinion in support of creationism is a mystery
ReplyDeleteIt's called "I'll say ANYTHING to win!"
You called it, JCF.
DeleteIt's been nearly a hundred years since the Snopes trial, and still we're having to go through all this. Unbelievable, on several levels.
ReplyDeleteThey don't make Rhodes Scholars like they used to. And where Louisiana goes, Texas will surely follow, I have no doubt.
Russ, we're going backwards. Did you know that since Texas is so large and populous, in many cases the textbook publishers cater to the wishes of the Texas Dept of Education?
DeleteI do know that - though why it should be so is utterly mysterious to me. California has half again the population we have, and CA + NY = nearly double. To say nothing of the other 47 states. So why the publishers kowtow to TX makes no sense to me, and is very bad for the rest of the country, God knows it is.
DeleteVinaigrette Girl here (friend of +Alan). Could anyone find locus to challenge this daylight madness in the courts?
ReplyDeleteVinaigrette Girl, several lawsuits have been filed, but the judges will not issue a stay to the implementation of the law, so the voucher giveaway moves on.
DeleteGood luck to them in any efforts to test students! When the R. Wingers started to take over Rel. Ed. programs in the churches, when testing was on the horizon, they evaded it or downright refused to give the tests. This will be interesting for sure!
ReplyDeletenij
Nij, the schools will not have a choice as to whether to test, unless they find a way to weasel their way out of following the rules.
DeleteIt's my understanding that the voucher schools have a much lower hurdle to jump regarding accountability as well. In public schools the students who fail to pass the state exams are held back automatically; in voucher schools they don't have to be held back. If public schools receive a low letter grade they are subject to closure and reorganization; if voucher schools receive a low letter grade they are prohibited from accepting more voucher students but keep those they have and the money they bring with them from the public schools. Separate, unequal, and a rigged game to destroy public education -- a long-time Republican/conservative dream.
ReplyDeletehttp://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-23/news/sns-rt-us-usa-education-louisianabre86n00j-20120723_1_voucher-program-voucher-students-voucher-advocates
Priscilla. you're absolutely right. The game is rigged. The voucher law is bad in so many ways. I can only think that the ultimate goal is to destroy the public education system by creeping privatization.
DeleteWell then it's obvious, isn't it? After 50+ years, when the public schools are finally abolished, the dreams of the segregationists will have been realized: finally, "No nigras in our schools!"
DeleteThe voucher system may lead to further segregation. Some of the Christian academies are associated with black churches and others with white churches. Of course, the Roman Catholic parochial school system has a long tradition, and the education offered is generally of good quality.
DeleteI sympathize with parents who want better for their children than what the New Orleans and Baton Rouge public school systems offer to children. Something is/was needed to break the cycle of failure. There are good charter schools, but others are just as much failures as the failing public schools.