Vote by Kansas School Board Favors Evolution's Doubters
TOPEKA, Kan. — The state Board of Education approved curriculum standards Tuesday that question evolution and redefine science to include concepts other than natural explanations.
The board, in a 6-4 vote, recommended that schools teach the "considerable scientific and public controversy" surrounding the origin of life -- a dispute most scientists contend exists only among creationists.
National science groups opposed the measure, and critics contended it was an effort to inject religion into the classroom.
But its advocates said they were interested only in improving science.
"This is a great day for Kansas," board President Steve E. Abrams said. "This absolutely raises science standards."
The dissenters noted that some board members who backed the standards have been outspoken about their faith and have criticized evolution for being offensive to Christianity.
"I'm certainly not here to change anyone's faith, but I wish you were not changing science to fit your faith," board member Carol Rupe said to Abrams.
Added member Janet Waugh: "We're becoming a laughing-stock, not only of the nation but of the world."
Tuesday's vote makes Kansas the fifth state to adopt standards that cast doubt on evolution.
A trial is underway in Pennsylvania over whether teaching intelligent design -- a concept that holds life is too complex to have evolved naturally -- violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on state promotion of religion.
The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Assn. -- two groups whose material comprises the backbone of Kansas' science standards -- told the state in advance that they would revoke copyright privileges if the new standards were approved; the board said that its lawyers would rewrite the document to avoid any violation of the law.
The standards approved Tuesday are not binding on local school districts, and few have said they planned to revise their lesson plans. But educators said there would be pressure to teach intelligent design and creationism because the standards were the basis for statewide testing.
National science groups feared the vote would open the door to anti-evolution movements elsewhere.
"Intelligent design supporters and creationists will hold this up as a standard -- go forth and do likewise," said Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, a group that describes itself as a nonprofit "providing information and resources for schools, parents and concerned citizens working to keep evolution in public school science education."
