Quality Science Education for All

Quality Science Education for All (QSEA) is a conservative religious/anti-evolution corporation based in Roseville, California operated by the husband and wife team of Larry and Jeanne Caldwell, of Granite Bay, California. Larry Caldwell lists himself as founder and president.

QSEA promotes a pro-Intelligent design agenda challenging the teaching of evolution in public schools and is closely tied to the Discovery Institute, hub of the Intelligent design movement. QSEA has been involved in legal disputes over science textbooks in several states, including Minnesota, Texas, and California.

Larry Caldwell, a pro-intelligent design activist and attorney, filed three suits in 2005 supporting the intelligent design movement. Jeanne Caldwell, his wife, is a Christian school teacher who "takes the Bible literally" was named as plaintiff in one case.[1] The Caldwells are currently appealing to the Supreme Court of the United States their failed Establishment Clause of the First Amendment suit against the University of California, Berkeley.[2][3] Larry Caldwell is a regular contributor to the Discovery Institute's anti-evolution blog, Evolution News,[4] and has been publishing content to the Discovery Institute site as early as January 2005.[5]

In the spring of 2005 Larry Caldwell sued the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), and its director, Eugenie Scott, alleging that Scott and the center made false claims in an article she published in California Wild, the magazine of the California Academy of Sciences.[6] The suit was abandoned by Caldwell. According to Scott, she was never served with papers for the suit. The Discovery Institute seized upon the suit to discredit their opponents, the NCSE and Scott.[7]

In October 2005 Caldwell filed suit in California federal court against the Roseville School District claiming that he was unconstitutionally denied access to various forums to promote his "Quality Science Education" pro-Intelligent design syllabus. In Caldwell v. Roseville Joint Union High School District Caldwell alleged free speech, establishment clause, due process and equal protection violations because his proposals were not placed on the School Board's agenda, his complaints about the school district's biology textbook were rejected, and his proposals were not placed on the agenda of of the Curriculum Instruction Team in his children's high school. In September 2007 the California federal district court dismissed Caldwell's suit. In granting summary judgment to the school district, the court emphasized that "this case is not about whether a theory of intelligent design can or should be included in the science curriculum.... Rather, this case is about whether Larry Caldwell was denied access to speak in various fora or participate in certain processes because of his actual or perceived religious beliefs." Caldwell's proposed syllabus contained written material from the Discovery Institute's Cornelius Hunter and a video based in the Intelligent design book Icons of Evolution by institute fellow Jonathan Wells.[8]

Also in October 2005 Larry Caldwell filed suit on behalf of his wife in federal court against the University of California, Berkeley, claiming their website Understanding Evolution violated separation of church and state by linking to sites which claim that religious faith is compatible with evolution. In March, 2006 the court granted the school's motion to dismiss the suit on the basis that the plaintiffs failed to establish that they suffered any restriction of their freedom of speech or religion and that Caldwell's exposure to the Web page was too minimal to cause the type of injury that would make her eligible to sue. The Caldwell's appealed and the appeal courts threw the case out based on her eligibility and didn't rule on whether the Web page violates the First Amendment. The Caldwells have appealed to the Supreme Court which has yet to decide to hear the case.[9]

Observers of the movement say Caldwell is a vexatious litigant,[10] known for "his hair-trigger willingness to sue people for just about anything, in the cause of ID creationism."[11]

As of March 2009, the California state online corporation record for Quality Science Education for All lists its corporate status as 'suspended'[12] and the former QSEA website, www.qsea.org, is no longer registered to the Caldwells.