Dear Friend,

Typically when I send you one of these alerts, I’m writing to inform you about some unconstitutional intrusion by the Religious Right into our government and laws. I’m pleased to be able to deliver much happier news.

Yesterday, the Orleans Parish School Board in Louisiana met to figure out how it wanted to select schoolbooks for the children in its district. During that meeting, the school board wisely decided that all of the history books in their district wouldn’t be filled with the revisionist nonsense that the Texas State Board of Education recently inserted into their state’s textbooks.

The Orleans Parish School Board also banned schoolbooks that taught creationism or intelligent design as science or scientific theories, and forbade teachers from teaching any aspect of religious faith, creationism or intelligent design as science in science classes.

This is great news for science education and schoolchildren around the nation. Rather than wasting valuable school time listening to religious instruction disguised as science education, our students now have the opportunity to actually find out more about the world we live in.

You and I both know Louisiana isn’t exactly the best place for church-state separation and education. I sent you an action alert earlier this year about the state’s disingenuously titled “Science Education Act” which injects religion into science classrooms through the state-sanctioned teaching of creationism and intelligent design.

That’s why it is so important that we thank those in Louisiana that stood up for church-state separation and science education. Please send a message to Orleans Parish School Board President Thomas Robichaux thanking him and the other board members for their defense of science education and church-state separation.

People all across the nation are working hard to protect education from the agenda of the Religious Right and their allies in government. Join the effort by thanking Thomas Robichaux and the Orleans Parish School Board for their hard work and courage.

Sincerely,

Roy Speckhardt
Executive Director