Kansas education board OKs science standards critical of evolution

TOPEKA, Kan. — Evolution theory could be subject to more criticism in Kansas science classrooms under new standards adopted today by the Kansas State Board of Education.

The board voted 6-4, as expected, to adopt new science standards that encourage such criticism.

The decision came months after the board, by the same 6-4 vote, rejected the recommendations of two-thirds of its science standards writing committee. The vote also runs afoul of mainstream national science organizations, which criticized the move.

A dozen television cameras, reporters and spectators crowded the boardroom for the sometimes-emotional debate.

"These are absolutely great science standards. I have no doubt about it, positively no doubt whatsoever," said board chairman Steve Abrams.

Board members who opposed the move lamented the attention the evolution debate focused on Kansas.

"Look at the media we're attracting," said board member Janet Waugh. "This is not positive media, folks, this is negative media. We're becoming the laughingstock not only of the nation, but of the world, and I hate that."

The decision may not have any immediate impact. Local school boards and administrators decide what becomes a part of their curriculum, and the standards will not be part of statewide assessments until the 2007-08 school year at the earliest.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius called Tuesday's action "the latest in a series of troubling decisions" by the board.

"If we are going to continue to bring high-tech jobs to Kansas and move our state forward, we need to strengthen science standards, not weaken them," she said.

Carol Rupe, a board member from Wichita, said she received 125 letters from honors English students explaining why they believe teaching evolution is important. All of the students attend faith-based high schools, she said.

With graduates finding themselves increasingly in competition with others around the world, Rupe said, "It's a lousy time for us to be lowering science standards in Kansas.

"I don't know anyone whose faith has been destroyed by learning good science."

Advocates of intelligent design theory helped draft the new standards. That theory holds that many elements of life could not have occurred without a designer guiding their development.

The Intelligent Design Network, based in Shawnee, Kan., praised the decision in a statement released after the vote.

"The changes will inform students about the science of origins rather than indoctrinate them in materialism, a philosophy that is at the core of non-theistic religious beliefs," the statement read, in part.

John Calvert, managing director of the Intelligent Design Network, distributed the statement, although it was not attributed to any individual. The network has worked with other states to develop standards critical of evolution.

Evolution supporters in the science community contend that intelligent design, which looks to a supernatural explanation for life, cannot be evaluated by science.

Earlier in the day, mainstream science proponents conducted a teleconference to criticize the changes.

"They really are advancing a sectarian religious view. They don't accept those religious people who accept evolution," said Jack Krebs, a math and science teacher at Oskaloosa and vice president of Kansas Citizens for Science.

Carol Williamson, science coordinator for the Olathe school district, said she thinks many Kansas teachers will ignore the changes. She served on the state board's science standards review committee.

Members of the board's majority insisted that they were not trying to insert religion into the classroom.

"You cannot find, and no one can find, in the matter that we are likely to adopt here, that there is any insertion of religion or faith into the standards," board member Ken Willard said.

The challenge to evolution came to the forefront early this year after conservatives regained a majority on the state board in last November's elections.

Four years prior to that, conservatives lost their majority in the 2000 election after adopting science standards in which most references to evolution were eliminated.

The latest decision already is beginning to shape next year's election. Challengers have surfaced for three of the four conservatives whose terms expire in early January 2007.

The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association withdrew permission for Kansas to use their copyrighted material, which was incorporated throughout the standards.

The board's final approval of the new standards must await revisions to avoid violating copyright laws.

"It should make a difference that the Academy of Science doesn't want anything to do with this document," Rupe said.

Board member Kathy Martin, a former science teacher, said the new standards will enable students to be "informed and not indoctrinated."

Some elements of evolution are well accepted, she said, but possible scientific explanations of the origin of life go too far.

"Students should not have to be exposed to that unless they can answer back," she said.