Americans United for Separation of Church and State reports:
“No thanks, New Orleans.”
The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) coined this phrase on its Web site this week, and it could quickly become the new catch phrase for scientists, educators and civil liberties groups across the country.
On Monday, SICB sent a letter to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal telling him that the organization will be taking its 2011 annual conference to Salt Lake City. ” “The SICB leadership could not support New Orleans as our meeting venue because of the official position of the state in weakening science education and specifically attacking evolution in science curricula.”
“The boycott is a result of Jindal’s decision to sign into law the so-called “Science Education Act.” That measure allows teachers to introduce into the classroom “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials” about evolution.
From the start, scientists and civil liberties groups knew this bill was part of a hidden agenda to push creationism in the science classroom.”
Good for you, SICB: when reason fails, the pocketbook might help! In the early 1980’s a similar war was going on in Arkansas, and one issue that came up was that high tech companies would not locate in the state.
Freethought 