Pending Textbook Adoption Fans Evolution Debate

Louisiana’s state school board is gearing up for a debate next week over a set of proposed life-science textbooks, amid complaints that they don’t provide information questioning the theory of evolution.

But defenders of the texts say the criticism of evolution’s treatment is misguided and appears to be part of a thinly veiled agenda to promote a religiously infused creationist or “intelligent design” perspective on the origins of life.

The state board of education in October adopted a variety of new science textbooks for public schools, but held off voting on high school biology and environmental-science books. Instead, it asked a rarely used state advisory council to review the...