One Governor

The current issue of Church and State, the magazine of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has an in-depth report on Louisiana's so-called "Science Education Act".

http://www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=cs_&page=NewsArticle&id=9947

In my Aug. 14th post, "Two Governors", I wrote,

On June 25th, Governor Jindal signed Senate Bill 733 into law. He issued no public statement.

Apparently this is incorrect. According to the article, Jindal did issue a brief statement:

Despite all the controversy surrounding this issue, Jindal barely publicized his signing of the new law. The press was not invited to witness the signing, and Jindal issued only a brief statement, in which he promised to "consistently support the ability of school boards and BESE [the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education] to make the best decisions to ensure a quality education for our children."

Perhaps Jindal’s hush-hush behavior results from his indifference to the many educational, science and legal organizations that pleaded for a veto of the measure. Even Jindal’s former college professor released a statement through the Louisiana Coalition for Science.

“Gov. Jindal was a good student in my class when he was thinking about becoming a doctor,” said Prof. Arthur Landy of Brown University, “and I hope he doesn’t do anything that would hold back the next generation of Louisiana’s doctors.”

Nine of the nation’s most prestigious scientific societies sent letters to the governor asking him to veto the bill.