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The Critic's Resource on AntiEvolution

NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2013/06/07

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear Friends of NCSE,

Louisiana's equal-time-for-creation-science law remains on the books.
A reminder that NCSE is seeking a new executive director. A new issue
of Reports of the NCSE is available. And a new voice for evolution is
raised in Oregon.

BALANCED TREATMENT ACT REMAINS ON THE BOOKS

Louisiana's Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and
Evolution-Science Act remains on the books, after the Senate and the
House of Representatives agreed to adopt a version of Senate Bill 205
lacking a provision repealing the act. The Balanced Treatment Act --
not to be confused with the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act,
enacted in 2008 and surviving three attempts at repeal -- was enacted
in 1981 and ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1987 in its
decision in Edwards v. Aguillard.

As NCSE previously reported, SB 205 originally provided only for the
establishment of foreign language immersion programs in public school
districts. But after the Senate Committee on Education tabled Senate
Bill 26, which would have repealed the LSEA, the committee amended SB
205 to repeal the Balanced Treatment Act. As amended, SB 205 passed
the Senate on a 36-2 vote, despite the protestations of Ben Nevers
(D-District 12), who expressed opposition to the repeal of the
Balanced Treatment Act, arguing that it would be useful for it to be
on the books in case the Supreme Court ever reverses its holding in
Edwards. Significantly, Nevers was the Senate sponsor of the LSEA in
2008.

When SB 205 went to the House Education Committee, the provision that
would repeal the Balanced Treatment Act was removed. The resulting
version of SB 205 passed the House on a 69-30 vote on June 3, 2013,
but the Senate rejected it, with no discussion, on a 36-0 vote on June
5, 2013. The bill then proceeded to a conference committee, which
agreed on a version of the bill lacking the repeal provision. On June
6, 2013, the bill was passed by the House on a 58-22 vote and by the
Senate on a 37-0 vote.

For information on Louisiana's Senate Bills 205 and 26, visit:
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=13RS&b=SB205 
http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/BillInfo.aspx?s=13RS&b=SB26 

For the text of the decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, visit:
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/edwards-v-aguillard.html 

And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Louisiana, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/louisiana 

HELP WANTED: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

NCSE is seeking to hire a new executive director to replace Eugenie C.
Scott, who is retiring after more than twenty-six years at NCSE's
helm. Duties will include serving as the public face of NCSE -- its
primary representative to the public, the press, and NCSE's allies --
and serving as the chief executive of NCSE, ultimately responsible to
the Board of Directors for the conduct of NCSE's internal and external
operations. Further information about duties, qualifications, salary
and benefits, and the application process is available from NCSE's job
page.

For the announcement of Scott's impending retirement, see:
http://ncse.com/news/2013/05/ncses-scott-to-retire-0014832 

For NCSE's job page, visit:
http://ncse.com/about/jobs 

RNCSE 33:3 NOW ON-LINE

NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the
National Center for Science Education is now available on-line. The
issue -- volume 33, number 3 -- Robert J. Raikow and Radmila Raikow's
article "Transitional Forms" and Courtney St. John's "Climate Change
Adaptation: Lessons from Unlikely Sources." And for his regular People
and Places column, Randy Moore discusses the career of the
fundamentalist cartoonist Jack T. Chick.

Plus a host of reviews of books on geology and paleontology and their
history: Antonio Lazcano reviews David Deamer's First Life, Joseph G.
Meert reviews Robert M. Hazen's The Story of Earth, Steven Newton
reviews David R. Montgomery's The Rocks Don't Lie, Kevin Padian
reviews David Sepkoski's Reading the Fossil Record, Alycia L. Stigall
reviews Neil Shubin's The Universe Within, and Derek Turner reviews
Brett Calcott and Kim Sterelny's collection The Major Transitions in
Evolution Revisited.

All of these articles, features, and reviews are freely available in
PDF form from http://reports.ncse.com. Members of NCSE will shortly be 
receiving in the mail the print supplement to Reports 33:3, which, in
addition to summaries of the on-line material, contains news from the
membership, a regular column in which NCSE staffers offer personal
reports on what they've been doing to defend the teaching of
evolution, a regular column interviewing NCSE's favorite people, and
more besides. (Not a member? Join today!)

For the table of contents for RNCSE 33:3, visit:
http://reports.ncse.com/index.php/rncse/issue/current/showToc 

For information about joining NCSE, visit:
http://ncse.com/join 

OREGON EDUCATORS ADD THEIR VOICE FOR EVOLUTION

The chorus of support for the teaching of evolution continues, with a
statement from the American Federation of Teachers -- Oregon, adopted
in 2013.

In its statement, AFT-Oregon observes that "biological evolution is a
fundamental underpinning of modern biological thought and research and
is not the subject of controversy among scientists ... [but] the
unfettered teaching of evolution in public schools has been under
attack since the early part of the twentieth century." Now in the
twenty-first century, "a strategy to teach creationism, intelligent
design, or evolution denial into public science classrooms has emerged
with the passage of laws intended to teach these theories as science
under the guise of protecting academic freedom in the classroom";
Louisiana and Tennessee are cited as cases in point.

Invoking the expertise of the American Association of University
Professors and NCSE, the statement concludes by affirming that
"AFT-Oregon encourages and expects Oregon's science teachers, in
presenting evolution and other topics, to understand, respect, and
communicate the consensus of the scientific community, in order to
present the science curriculum effectively to their students" and that
"AFT-Oregon will be on alert for, and opposed to, bills at the state
or federal level that attempt to use the guise of academic freedom as
a means of introducing creationism, intelligent design, or evolution
denial into science classrooms."

AFT-Oregon's statement is now reproduced, by permission, on NCSE's
website, and will also be contained in the fourth edition of NCSE's
Voices for Evolution.

For AFT-Oregon's statement, visit:
http://ncse.com/media/voices/american-federation-teachers-oregon 

And for information about Voices for Evolution, visit:
http://ncse.com/voices 

Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on 
evolution and climate education and threats to them.

--
Sincerely,

Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
420 40th Street, Suite 2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 x305
fax: 510-601-7204
800-290-6006
branch@ncse.com 
http://ncse.com 

Read Reports of the NCSE on-line:
http://reports.ncse.com 

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