House Bill 2526 [Link broken] (RTF) is the second antievolution bill to be introduced in the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2006, and like its predecessor HB 2107, it will presumably be considered after the legislature convenes on February 6, 2006. HB 2526 would, if enacted, authorize school districts to include "intelligent design" in "any public school instruction concerning the theories of the origin of man and the earth which includes the theory commonly known as evolution." Teachers would be allowed to "use supporting evidence deemed necessary for instruction on the theory of intelligent design," subject to the approval of their school districts, but not to "stress any particular denominational, sectarian, or religious doctrine or belief."
HB 2526 is evidently modeled on Pennsylvania's HB 1007, introduced in the House of Representatives there on March 16, 2005. The most significant difference is that HB 1007 contains a provision stating that its dictates "shall not be construed as being adverse to any decision which has been rendered by an appellate court," while there is no such provision in HB 2526. The sponsor of the Oklahoma bill is Representative Abe Deutschendorf (D-District 62), who was listed in 2000 as the coauthor of a House version of a Senate bill, SB 1139 [Link broken] (RTF), which would have required the state textbook committee to "ensure that the textbooks include acknowledgment that human life was created by one God of the Universe." His bill unanimously passed in the House, but was never enacted.