re: #187 Naso Tang

Do they teach creationism in Texas (as opposed to not teaching evolution)?

According to The Walking Dude, they teach both.

But Steve Benen points out that if they do, they’re doing so illegally.

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, Perry may have no idea what goes on in Texas’ public schools, but if they’re teaching “both creationism and evolution,” they’re violating the law. It’s not even a gray area — the Supreme Court has already struck down a law that called for “balanced treatment for creation-science and evolution-science in public school instruction,” concluding that the law violated the separation of church and state. Teaching religion in science class is illegal under the First Amendment.

It’s not exactly a secret that plenty of school districts ignore the law, but that’s not really the point here. Rather, this is a governor arguing publicly that his entire state is ignoring the law.

So either Perry doesn’t know what’s going on in his state’s schools or the whole state is in breach of a Supreme Court ruling.