Evolution in Kansas
Evolution Opponents Lose Kansas Board Majority
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times, August 2, 2006
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Conservative Republicans who approved new classroom standards that call evolution into question lost control of the State Board of Education in Tuesday's primary election.
A victory by pro-evolution Republican candidate Jana Shaver over conservative Republican Brad Patzer, who supported the standards treating evolution as a flawed theory, meant conservatives would at best have five of 10 seats on the board.
Five seats were up for election in the primary, the latest skirmish in a seesawing battle between faith and science that has opened Kansas up to international ridicule.
Conservative Republican John Bacon kept his seat by besting two pro-evolution challengers. But Shaver's win split the makeup of the board between evolution supporters and opponents. She won a seat that was vacant because a conservative Republican evolution opponent was retiring.
Besides Bacon and Shaver's races, the seats of two conservative Republicans who oppose evolution were up for grabs, along with that of a Democrat who favors evolution.
Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat who opposed the new standards, defeated a more conservative Democrat who favored the anti-evolution language with 65 percent of the vote.
One conservative incumbent, Ken Willard, held on to his seat, but another, Connie Morris, was losing to a pro-evolution candidate.
Morris' race in western Kansas was the most closely watched. The former teacher has described evolution as ''an age-old fairy tale'' and ''a nice bedtime story'' unsupported by science.
Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif., which supports the teaching of evolution, said conservative victories would generate attempts to adopt Kansas' standards elsewhere.
''There are people around the country who would like to see the Kansas standards in their own states,'' she said.
Also Tuesday, Kansas Republicans chose a nominee to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in November. With 96 percent of the state's precincts reporting, state Sen. Jim Barnett captured his party's nomination with 36 percent of the vote, besting six other candidates.
The school board contest was part of a larger effort by the intelligent design movement to introduce its ideas in public schools.
A suburban Atlanta school district is locked in a legal dispute over its putting stickers in 35,000 biology textbooks declaring evolution ''a theory, not a fact.''
Last year, in Dover, Pa., voters ousted school board members who had required the biology curriculum to include mention of intelligent design. A federal judge struck down the policy, declaring intelligent design is religion in disguise.
A poll by six news organizations last year suggested about half of Kansans thought evolution should be taught alongside intelligent design.
''I feel like if you give two sides of something, most people are intelligent enough to make up their own minds,'' said Ryan Cole, a 26-year-old farmer and horse trainer from Smith County, along the Nebraska line.
Control of the school board has slipped into, out of and back into conservative Republicans' hands since 1998, resulting in anti-evolution standards in 1999, evolution-friendly ones in 2001 and anti-evolution ones again last year.
Late-night comedians have been making cracks about Kansas, portraying it as backward and ignorant. Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' broadcast a four-part series titled, ''Evolution Schmevolution.''
Proponents of Kansas' latest standards contend they encourage open discussion.
''Students need to have an accurate assessment of the state of the facts in regard to Darwin's theory,'' said John West, a vice president for the Center for Science and Culture at the Seattle-based, anti-evolution Discovery Institute.
The standards say that the evolutionary theory that all life had a common origin has been challenged by fossils and molecular biology. And they say there is controversy over whether changes over time in one species can lead to a new species.
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On the Net:
Kansas science standards: http://www.ksde.org/outcomes/sciencestd.pdf
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, The New York Times, August 2, 2006
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Conservative Republicans who approved new classroom standards that call evolution into question lost control of the State Board of Education in Tuesday's primary election.
A victory by pro-evolution Republican candidate Jana Shaver over conservative Republican Brad Patzer, who supported the standards treating evolution as a flawed theory, meant conservatives would at best have five of 10 seats on the board.
Five seats were up for election in the primary, the latest skirmish in a seesawing battle between faith and science that has opened Kansas up to international ridicule.
Conservative Republican John Bacon kept his seat by besting two pro-evolution challengers. But Shaver's win split the makeup of the board between evolution supporters and opponents. She won a seat that was vacant because a conservative Republican evolution opponent was retiring.
Besides Bacon and Shaver's races, the seats of two conservative Republicans who oppose evolution were up for grabs, along with that of a Democrat who favors evolution.
Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat who opposed the new standards, defeated a more conservative Democrat who favored the anti-evolution language with 65 percent of the vote.
One conservative incumbent, Ken Willard, held on to his seat, but another, Connie Morris, was losing to a pro-evolution candidate.
Morris' race in western Kansas was the most closely watched. The former teacher has described evolution as ''an age-old fairy tale'' and ''a nice bedtime story'' unsupported by science.
Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, Calif., which supports the teaching of evolution, said conservative victories would generate attempts to adopt Kansas' standards elsewhere.
''There are people around the country who would like to see the Kansas standards in their own states,'' she said.
Also Tuesday, Kansas Republicans chose a nominee to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in November. With 96 percent of the state's precincts reporting, state Sen. Jim Barnett captured his party's nomination with 36 percent of the vote, besting six other candidates.
The school board contest was part of a larger effort by the intelligent design movement to introduce its ideas in public schools.
A suburban Atlanta school district is locked in a legal dispute over its putting stickers in 35,000 biology textbooks declaring evolution ''a theory, not a fact.''
Last year, in Dover, Pa., voters ousted school board members who had required the biology curriculum to include mention of intelligent design. A federal judge struck down the policy, declaring intelligent design is religion in disguise.
A poll by six news organizations last year suggested about half of Kansans thought evolution should be taught alongside intelligent design.
''I feel like if you give two sides of something, most people are intelligent enough to make up their own minds,'' said Ryan Cole, a 26-year-old farmer and horse trainer from Smith County, along the Nebraska line.
Control of the school board has slipped into, out of and back into conservative Republicans' hands since 1998, resulting in anti-evolution standards in 1999, evolution-friendly ones in 2001 and anti-evolution ones again last year.
Late-night comedians have been making cracks about Kansas, portraying it as backward and ignorant. Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' broadcast a four-part series titled, ''Evolution Schmevolution.''
Proponents of Kansas' latest standards contend they encourage open discussion.
''Students need to have an accurate assessment of the state of the facts in regard to Darwin's theory,'' said John West, a vice president for the Center for Science and Culture at the Seattle-based, anti-evolution Discovery Institute.
The standards say that the evolutionary theory that all life had a common origin has been challenged by fossils and molecular biology. And they say there is controversy over whether changes over time in one species can lead to a new species.
------
On the Net:
Kansas science standards: http://www.ksde.org/outcomes/sciencestd.pdf