[Editor’s Note: We’ve done several posts here on Louisiana Bobby Jindal’s post-election comments which are quite moderate in tone. But he is also at the center of an ongoing battle in his home state that is worth remembering and puts his stand on issues into a wider context. Here’s a concise Guest Voice post that’ll help.]

Bobby Jindal and Creationism
by Zack Kopplin

Louisiana’s Governor, Bobby Jindal, recently spoke out against anti-intellectualism in the Republican Party. He said, the Republican Party must “stop being the stupid party.”

Governor Jindal is well positioned to put his money where his mouth is. During his term he has supported the passage of several anti-science laws. Instead, he should support their repeal.

We have a creationism law in Louisiana. 78 Nobel laureate scientists have called on Governor Jindal to repeal this law. He should listen to them.

We have a creationist school voucher program. We are funding at least twenty schools that are teaching creationism. These schools are receiving at least $4 million of public money. The Jindal administration should remove these creationist schools from its program.

Governor Jindal, please do the right thing and support an educated science policy. Please teach our students evolution.

Zack Kopplin is a student at Rice University. He has won the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Education and the National Center for Science Education’s Friend of Darwin Award. He is leading the repeal of Louisiana’s creationism law and he exposed creationist voucher schools.

You can see his work on the issues at repealcreationism.com and creationistvouchers.com