If You Can't Sell It in Siloam Springs....

The Siloam Springs School Board at its meeting this week unanimously rejected Gentry resident Logan Reed's request to teach an elective course on the Bible as literature and history for two semesters credit to captive high school students. The curriculum touted by Reed is one developed by the right-wing National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, based in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is the same scam for getting a particular religious viewpoint into the public schools that was earlier rejected by the Fort Smith School Board.

If the conservative school boards in Republican-dominated Siloam Springs and Fort Smith won't fall for this sure-fire loser lawsuit, where can Reed find a taker? Undaunted, Reed said he intends to push his Bible curriculum scheme to other area school districts in Benton County and in Oklahoma. Maybe the Virtual Charter School will bite.

The only school district in the state to fall for the NCBC religious indoctrination proposal has been Texarkana, where Paul D. Human is in charge. Human once lost a lawsuit in federal court when it was found that he was trying to introduce mandatory Bible stories in the public schools of Benton County in violation of the First Amendment. Although the litigation cost taxpayers thousands of dollars to defend an obviously unconstitutional practice, Human was rewarded by former Governor Mike Huckabee with appointment to the Arkansas Early Childhood Commission, where he will serve for yet another year.