Bobby Jindal has received high praise from David Brooks and the wise village pundits for exhorting the GOP to "stop being the party of stupid." But what Brooks, Gregory, Brokaw et al fail to mention is that Governor Jindal has presided over one of the biggest "stupids" of all - namely, the Louisiana Science Education Act, which permits the teaching of creationism in public schools. Jindal majored in Biology at Brown University, but he is perfectly willing to throw science under the bus if it appeases his stupid base in Louisiana.
Well, one 19-year old student is becoming Jindal's worst nightmare.
Boston Globe columnist Joanna Weiss has a terrific column about the work of Zack Kopplin, a student from Baton Rouge, who is fighting to repeal the stupid law:
Kopplin was a high school student in Baton Rouge in 2008, when the Louisiana Science Education Act overwhelmingly passed the Legislature, with Jindal’s support.
The law doesn’t require schools to teach intelligent design, but it gives cover to teachers and school boards that do. Kopplin’s teachers, at a public magnet school, found it appalling.
So for his high school senior project — while some of his friends were learning languages or interviewing their grandparents — Kopplin launched a campaign to repeal the law.
So far, Jindal and his stupid supporters have managed to defeat two repeal efforts, but young Zack is persistent:
The repeal effort has failed twice so far, but Kopplin has gained increasing fame as Jindal’s boyish nemesis. A couple of weeks ago, the website io9 declared that he’s “making life hell for Louisiana’s creationists.” That might be an overstatement, but Kopplin’s clout is clearly growing, as evidenced by the backlash. Yesterday, I got an e-mail from a right-wing education group, accusing him of being a tool for teachers’ unions.
And Zack isn't just targeting Jindal's stupid creationist law; he is going after creationist legislation nationwide, as well as Jindal's efforts to gut public education with a voucher scheme:
Meanwhile, Kopplin has taken on vouchers, one of Jindal’s pet programs, partnering with MSNBC to report that 300 schools, in at least nine states, are teaching creationism as science on the taxpayer dime. He hopes to start a “Second Giant Leap” campaign to end creationism bills across the country, and to invest $1 trillion for science education.
We need to do everything we can to support Zack Kopplin in his initiatives. Creationism has no place in public schools. And it is a scandal that a "college" like
Patrick Henry is granted accreditation when it fires faculty for teaching science. Promoting junk science and superstition ultimately leads to the degradation of politics (witness the Nazis' embrace of
Cosmic Ice Theory).