On State of Belief, we’ve talked a lot about the unprecedented dismantling of Louisiana’s public education system through Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s astoundingly broad school voucher program. But the effort in Louisiana, which funnels large amounts of tax dollars to overtly religious schools with little or no oversight, is widely seen as a national model for “education reform” – and so far, an astoundingly effective way to leverage parent dissatisfaction into a “school choice” scheme that threatens the very existence of public education available to all. How could it be otherwise, with textbooks touting the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs, fire-breathing dragons and broad, faith-based attacks on science? Zack Kopplin, a sophomore at Rice University in Houston, TX, and a graduate of Louisiana public schools, returned to the show to give us an update on Jindal’s folly – and offer some concrete strategies for pushing back.
You can read about some of the most extreme schools and teaching materials funded by this education program at Zack’s website, repealcreationism.com.