"Intelligent design" ban stripped from Minnesota bill

In Minnesota, Senate File 2994 was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate on May 20, 2006, but without the provision that would have prohibited the state department of education and local school districts from "utilizing a nonscientifically based curriculum, such as intelligent design, to meet the required science academic standards under this section." The Senate approved a version of the omnibus education bill with that provision, proposed by Senator Lawrence J. Pogemiller (DFL-District 59), on May 15. The House, however, substituted its own version of the bill without Pogemiller's provision and approved it by a vote of 131-1, with the Senate following suit with a vote of 66-0. The legislature adjourned sine die on May 21. SF 2994 was the second bill that would have banned the teaching of "intelligent design" to be introduced in a state legislature during 2006; the other, Wisconsin's Assembly Bill 1143, died in committee on May 4, 2006.