La. School board rejects anti-evolution textbook disclaimer. (People & Events).

Louisiana's Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has voted 7-3 to reject a proposal to add anti-evolution disclaimers to biology textbooks used in public schools.

A board committee had earlier approved use of the disclaimer, which casts doubt on the validity of evolution and claims that the theory "still leaves many unanswered questions about the origin of life."

The vast majority of biologists in the country accept evolution. It is stridently opposed by many fundamentalist Christians, however, who have worked to undermine instruction about the theory in public schools. Religious Right groups have pressured educators in many states to adopt the disclaimers. So far, only Alabama has done so.

Alabama's disclaimer, adopted six years ago, engendered months of controversy and led to threats of legal action. The full Louisiana board apparently had no desire to go through that.

"I am not prepared to go back to the Dark Ages," Board President Paul Pastorek said. "I don't think state boards should dictate editorial content of school textbooks."

Ohio's Board of Education, meanwhile, has adopted new science standards that require instruction about evolution but also approve "critical analysis" of the scientific concept. Critics insist that the terminology is code language for creationism.

"These new standards are dangerously vague," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The Board needs to be on notice that any attempt to sneak creationism in through the back door of Ohio's public school system will be met with swift legal resistance."

Supporters of the neo-creationist "intelligent design" movement had pressured the board to include specific references to that concept in the guidelines. Although the board did not do so, the Discovery Institute, the leading "intelligent design" advocacy group, issued a press release hailing the Ohio vote as "historic" and asserting, "This policy will help remedy the selective presentation of evidence made by most biology textbooks today."