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The Louisiana Senate is expected to pass a controversial bill the Louisiana Coalition For Science (LCFS) fears is an end-around to allow creationism in public classrooms but the state Department of Education (DOE) sees as a way for local school boards to make better use of taxpayer money.
??The Senate Education Committee sent HB580, filed by Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe, to the full Senate June 16. The bill would enable local school boards to buy textbooks that haven?t been approved by the State Textbook Adoption Committee without the budget restrictions now in place. Current law states that no more than 10 percent of a district?s total budget can be spent on books not on the state?s approved list.
???It passed overwhelmingly in the full House; I?m sure it will pass in the full Senate,? says Ian Binns, an LCFS member and assistant professor in Louisiana State University?s Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Practice who testified against the bill before the Senate Education Committee.
???We were critical about it being open season on the materials they can buy with state money and how they will oversee those resources,? Binns says.? [ Read more ]

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