On April 1, Louisiana Representative Ben Nevers introduced House Concurrent Resolution 50, which “[e]ncourages city, parish, and other local public school systems to refrain from purchasing certain textbooks.”
The resolution states that “in the effort to encourage the development of students’ critical thinking skills, city, parish, and other local public school systems should refrain from purchasing textbooks that do not present a balanced view of the various theories relative to the origin of life but rather refer to one theory as proven fact.”
The resolution also quotes the Santorum Amendment to the No Child Left Behind education bill that was signed into law by President Bush in January 2002. The proposed amendment, which singled out evolution for special treatment, was stripped from the bill by the House-Senate Conference Committee and appears only in the conference report.
The resolution was referred to the Education Committee on April 2nd.
April 4, 2003