Since the 1980’s, the U.S. Supreme Court and many federal courts have consistently ruled that creationism and intelligent design cannot be taught in public school science classes as an alternative to Darwinian evolution. Recently, however, many states have expanded their school voucher programs. School vouchers are funds provided by the government to help families pay for private school tuition if they choose to send their children to private instead of public schools. In states with voucher programs, some families are using the vouchers to send their children to private religious schools where creationism and/or intelligent design are being taught in science classes in addition to evolutionary theory, or, in some cases, instead of evolutionary theory. Pretend that a NJ state politician has proposed a bill to ban the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in all NJ private schools that accept vouchers. The bill has passed through the NJ legislature and is now on the desk of Governor Christie who has the power to sign it into law, veto it, or send it back to the legislature for revision. What do you think the governor should do with the bill—sign it into law, veto it, or send it back with certain amendments added to it? Amendments might include banning creationism/intelligent design from science classes only or stipulating how these ideas might be taught in the science class. Frame your argument in the form of a letter to the governor in which you defend your position using reasons and material from the Evolution vs. Intelligent Design unit.
