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Louisiana\u2019s public school system is ranked 49th<\/a> out of the 50 states of our Republic. That\u2019s 49th in quality, 47th in dropout rate, 47th in reading scores, 48th in math and 43rd in the percentage of threatened or injured high school students.<\/p>\n Such egregious marks for the Bayou State\u2019s quality of education cry out for immediate, bold action. Fortunately, Louisiana\u2019s lawmakers and Governor Jeff Landry were up for the task. Did they move swiftly to improve the quality of education by increasing the pay for teachers, thereby attracting more qualified mentorship for young minds? Did they beef up security to safeguard students from bullies and outside crazies with military hardware? Did they review and replace outdated or difficult-to-understand textbooks, replacing them with tried and true ones? Did they investigate and get the source of low test scores?\u00a0<\/p>\n The answer to that multiple-choice question is None of The Above.<\/p>\n Instead, on June 19th, 2024, legislation compelling every public classroom to display the Ten Commandments was signed into law, making Louisiana the first state to boldly go where no state has gone before. Proudly and with banners waving, Louisiana stomped on the First Amendment\u2019s establishment clause, which forbids the state to mandate one religion above others.<\/p>\n In other words, what makes America America and what attracted so many of those huddled masses yearning to breathe free just won\u2019t fly in Louisiana.<\/p>\n There are already lawsuits pending, and as Gov. Jeff says<\/a>, \u201cI can\u2019t wait to be sued.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the new legislation has gone forward, as enforced by the state\u2019s Attorney General Liz Murrill. Together, the governor and his AG have devised six ways<\/em> to a) get around having violated the First Amendment, b) if that doesn\u2019t work, distract people from seeing that they violated the First Amendment and c) if that<\/em> doesn\u2019t work, justify how doing what they did is EXACTLY what the First Amendment is ALL ABOUT, you dummy.<\/p>\n Here are the six:<\/p>\n Each of these posters includes an essay at the bottom on \u201cThe History of the Ten Commandments in American Public Education,\u201d typeset by the same people who bring us those drug warnings that flash across the screen for 1\/10,000th of a second in print that only an amoeba could read if it used a magnifying glass.<\/p>\n These versions of the Ten Commandments are posted for your viewing trauma on Facebook pages courtesy of the courageous state Attorney General Murrill, who must have known that she would be inviting comments by doing so. And comments there are aplenty:<\/p>\n And so on.<\/p>\n It is our fervent hope that, with the help of cooler heads and a sane judiciary, the great state of Louisiana will focus on education, not inculcation, and that the three R\u2019s will remain inviolate, with the fourth R\u2014religion\u2014remaining in the heart and soul, where it has always been paramount.<\/p>\n Photo credits: Ten Commandments monument in Springer, NM<\/a> by Billy Hathorn. CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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![Ten Commandments monument in Springer, NM<\/a> by Billy Hathorn.](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Ten_Commandments_monument_in_Springer,_NM_IMG_0544.JPG\"){kind=link}