At a press event on Tuesday, Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) repeatedly dodged questions about whether or not he believes in the biological explanation of how life evolved on Earth or the Creationist vision of a world created in seven days by God.
Talking Points Memo reported that multiple reporters tried to pin down Jindal on the question at a breakfast held by the Christian Science Monitor newspaper.
"The reality is I'm not an evolutionary biologist," he told the assembled media.
"What I believe as a father and a husband is that local schools should make decisions on how they teach," Jindal -- a potential 2016 hopeful for the Republican presidential nomination -- said, dodging the question as to whether or not creationism should be included in school textbooks.
He went on, "And we can talk about Common Core and why I don't believe in a national curriculum? I think local school districts should make decisions about what should be taught in their classroom. I want my kids to be exposed to the best science, the best critical thinking..."
TPM pointed out that Jindal is a former Rhodes scholar who studied biology at Brown University, but he still dodged reporters' queries as to his personal beliefs.
"I will tell you, as a father, I want my kids to be taught about evolution in their schools, but secondly, I think local school districts should make the decision," he said.
A third reporter asked the governor to simply state what he personally believes.
"I told you what I think. I think that local school districts, not the federal government, should make the decision about how they teach science, biology, economics. I want my kids to be taught about evolution; I want my kids to be taught about other theories," Jindal said.
In 2008, Jindal was instrumental in the passage of the Louisiana Science Education Act, which allowed science teachers in public schools to veer away from the established science in biology courses. Under the Act, teachers can use the Bible, creationist tracts and other literature to "supplement" their teaching about how life evolved on Earth.
[image of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), Flickr Creative Commons]
