Bobby Jindal’s signing of that Louisiana Science Education Act is getting him some broadsides from the life-sciences community. One of their online magazines, TheScientist.com (there’s a free registration rigmarole) has a piece by Michael Stebbins, the Director of Biology Policy at the Federation of American Scientists. It includes the following interesting bit of hypocrisy on Jindal’s part that I have not seen noted elsewhere.
Few took notice of a provision in the bill that gives the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education unprecedented power to prohibit materials approved by local school boards. This is a politically appointed board and the bill provides no guidelines for making such Draconian decisions. This runs completely counter to the conservative principles Jindal cited in supporting the bill. In [his] Face the Nation interview, he stated his philosophy, “I don’t think that this [teaching evolution in schools] is something that federal or state governments should be imposing its views on local districts. You know, as a conservative, I think that government that is closest to the people governs best. I think local school boards should be in the position of deciding their curricula and also deciding what students should be learning.” He has now signed a law that gives unprecedented powers to the state over local school boards — hypocritical on most days.