It’s rare for the media to offer a fair view of academic freedom legislation, in any state. But then along comes The Advocate in Baton Rouge, LA, with a hard-hitting piece by Professor Jeff Sadow that does just that (“Science law prompts ‘cottage industry’ of liberal hysteria over creationism“).

He reflects on the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA) and looks ahead to the upcoming science standards review. Sadow is in a position to know what he’s talking about. He teaches political science at Louisiana State University in Shreveport, and writes about Louisiana politics.

What does the LSEA actually say? On that question, commentators routinely mislead readers. However, Sadow has studied its language:

The act says that if requested, the state can assist local education agencies in nurturing a school environment “that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.” However, the law’s application “shall not be construed to promote any religious doctrine, promote discrimination for or against a particular set of religious beliefs, or promote discrimination for or against religion or nonreligion.”

Even with this crystal-clear language, a cottage industry has sprung up peddling the fantasy that the law encourages teaching creationism in public schools.

…

The law creates a minor incentive for science classrooms to explore important issues and develop critical thinking skills. It also stands as a bulwark against the potential imposition of politically motivated orthodoxy masquerading as science. To oppose the act reveals an intolerance of freedom in academic inquiry — and a willingness to indulge a totalitarian impulse seeking to control information and knowledge.

Wow. “Crystal-clear language,” rebutting the “fantasy that the law encourages teaching creationism in public schools,” a law that encourages “science classrooms to explore important issues and develop critical thinking skills.” That is strong language supporting the LSEA, and he’s got his facts straight, too. How refreshing.

Eight years after the passage of the LSEA, Sadow is pointing out that the law does not allow teaching creationism, despite what critics have claimed. He sees attempts to repeal the act as motivated by politics, saying that “[Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, of New Orleans,] kept trying regardless as an apparent attempt to make [then-Governor Bobby] Jindal look bad.”

He attributes the lack of a bill this year to the change in governor. Jindal is out of office, replaced by John Bel Edwards.

Sadow ends by looking ahead to the science standards review process, noting:

In choosing standards, these panels would do well to emulate the spirit of free inquiry encapsulated in the Louisiana Science Education Act, as scientific inquiry as a whole increasingly becomes threatened by politics.

Yes, let’s hope that Louisiana’s new science standards will follow the example of the LSEA, authorizing critical inquiry and an objective weighing of mainstream scientific evidence.

Photo: Louisiana State Capitol, by Bluepoint951 [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.