Why were these policies proposed? Noting that they were the brainchild of the outgoing president of the board, Thomas Robichaux, the Times-Picayune(November 20, 2012) previously speculated, "The move can be read in two ways": as a way for Robichaux "to leave his mark on issues he feels passionately about" and as reflecting "a concern that the board may eventually feel pressure to take a more religious bent." The blog of the weekly Gambit (December 19, 2012) reported that the only speaker on the textbook policy at the meeting was Zack Kopplin: "'Creationism certainly is not science,' he said, warning that students not only will not meet higher education standards, but they 'won't find New Orleans jobs in the Bio District.'"
A Louisiana board bans creationism
The Orleans Parish School Board "OK'd policies that prohibit the teaching of creationism or so-called 'intelligent design' in its half-dozen direct-run schools, or the purchasing of textbooks that promulgate those perspectives," according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune (December 18, 2012). As specified in the documents for the board's December 18, 2012, meeting, the new policies provide (PDF, pp. 100 and 101), in part, that no "science textbook [shall] be approved which presents creationism or intelligent design as science or scientific theories" and that "[no] teacher of any discipline of science shall teach creationism or intelligent design in classes designated as science classes."
