I found out about Senate Bill 733, laughably known as The Louisiana Science Education Act, from RichardDawkins.net.

On May 21, 2008, Senate Bill 733, the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, was unanimously passed by the Louisiana House Education Committee. Before passage, the bill was amended slightly from the form which passed the Senate on April 29, 2008, as previously reported by NCSE. It now moves to the full House.

Here's the link to the Louisiana Legislature's information on the bill. As of this writing, it is pending a vote in the House.

So I sent this letter this morning to my representative:

Dear Representative Joel C. Robideaux,

I am writing as a concerned constituent of yours regarding Senate Bill 733, otherwise known as The Louisiana Science Education Act. The bill states:

"Proposed law requires BESE, upon request of a local school board, to allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

Such a bill is unnecessary, since the cultivation of the atmosphere described by this wording is already covered by Louisiana education standards. By cherry-picking the specific issues above, the bill indicates a bias toward those topics, which inherently clashes with the notion of "open and objective discussions of scientific theories." I believe the intent of this bill is not to promote honest and open inquiry, but to act as a gateway for the injection of religious ideology into Louisiana classrooms, at the expense of well-established scientific consensus and to the detriment of our education system as a whole.

My understanding is that the bill is pending a vote in the House. Our education system needs and deserves serious attention and substantive change, not superfluous, surreptitious attempts such as SB 733 to weaken and dilute it. Please vote against Senate Bill 733.

Best,
Derek James
[address and phone]