AAAS Reiterates Opposition to Anti-Science Education Efforts

[Editor's Note: This story was updated on Friday 20 June 2008]

As Louisiana policy-makers prepared to debate Senate Bill 733, the so-called "Louisiana Science Education Act," AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner, executive publisher of the journal Science, sent a letter directly to Speaker of the House Jim Tucker (R-Algiers) and other state representatives decrying the latest effort to insert religious, unscientific views into science classrooms. "Louisiana students need a firm understanding of evolution and other essential concepts to compete for high-skill jobs in an increasingly high-tech world economy," Leshner noted. When policy-makers passed the proposal, Leshner then wrote to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, urging him to veto the bill.

Leshner further penned a commentary on the issue that recently appeared in the Shreveport Times; a related letter to the editor was published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and other newspapers. Together with Albert Teich, director of Science and Policy Programs at AAAS, Leshner took part in targeted radio interviews, too.

Read more about AAAS efforts to protect the integrity of science education in Louisiana.