QUOTE OF THE DAY…. This administration really does seem serious about science.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday he wants to launch a “new era” of science education in the United States, one that encourages students to ask tough, challenging questions and brings more specially trained science and math teachers into the classroom.

Duncan told the National Science Teachers Association during a visit to New Orleans that President Barack Obama sees a need for inventors and engineers along with poets and scholars and “will not allow scientific research to be held hostage to a political agenda.”

“Whether it’s global warming, evolution or stem cell research, science will be honored. It will be respected and supported by this administration,” he said.

It may be the soft bigotry of low expectations — an administration vowing to take reason and evidence seriously; imagine that — but I continue to find this rhetoric encouraging.

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Follow Steve on Twitter @stevebenen. Steve Benen is a producer at MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show. He was the principal contributor to the Washington Monthly's Political Animal blog from August 2008 until January 2012.