Louisiana to allow teaching other theories

The State legislature of Louisiana has passed a law, and the Christian Governor, Bobby Jindal, is expected to sign the law that would allow the teaching of intelligent design and other "theories". The law gives local school boards wide discretion in what will be taught.

http://www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=498719
B.(1) The State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, upon request of a city, parish, or other local public school board, shall allow and assist teachers, principals, and other school administrators to create and foster an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.

That's why, as a libertarian, I think the government should not be involved in the education industry. If the education monopoly was disbanded there would be plenty of private providers. They could teach what the market wants. Sooner or later the market will decide which "theory" has merit.

Government schools, where one is forced to pay for teachings that one does not believe in, or prohibited from teaching what one believes in, only creates conflict and strife. Without government schools we would not be having the ongoing debate about what should or should not be taught in school. Nor would we be fighting in the courts about what can and cannot be taught.

The government schools were created to compete with the Catholic private schools. The creators of the government schools wanted the schools to teach the protestant religion. The creators of the government schools wanted to control the malleable mind of the youth, as did Marx and other witchdoctors and tyrants throughout history.

The creators of the government schools promoted education of the poor. Poor parents fell for this sales pitch. Like all organizations that start out with a principle to provide and protect their members, organizations grow and become a means to provide and protect the ones running the organization. The government schools now have so many people in the industry that the students' interest are secondary to; administrators, nurses, counselors, teachers, bus drivers, janitors, book publishers, and those who want to mold the young minds to; socialism, Islam, Christianity, feminism, or environmentalism.

Therefore we libertarians believe in a free market for education. Of course, if the U.S. was a desert, without navigable waterways, forests, coal, and fertile plains, we might still be ruled by the cleric, like the cleric rules Iran. Creationism would probable be the most favored subject, even in a free market.

But, we have become prosperous, not just because of our politics, and certainly not because of government schools, but, because our natural resources, using science and technology, the destroyer of myths, has allowed us to blossom and flower.

Charles Tolleson