Natural Selection: Election for Kansas Board of Education Installs Pro-Science Majority
The Columbus Dispatch, 08/07/2006
Aug. 7--Perhaps Kansas residents got tired of being a major reason that the
world asks, "Why can't Americans accept modern science? " Tuesday's election
results likely mean that evolution will be taught in the same way as any other
science topic, free of special conditions imposed by religiously motivated
opponents.
This election was only a primary, in which five seats were up for grabs on the
state's Board of Education. Four of them were held by evolution skeptics, who
advocated injecting religionbased ideas into the science curriculum of Kansas
schools. But Tuesday's vote ensured that two of the hard-core anti-evolution
board members won't be on the ballot in November, and that the pro-science
side of the board will have a 6-4 majority.
That's enough votes to cut troubling, faith-based standards out of the state's
science curriculum.
It's disheartening that in 2006, when there are so many other pressing
problems in education, understanding and acceptance of the theory of evolution
has to be the standard around which state board members must be vetted.
But this isn't a litmus test; it's a proficiency test.
Candidates either understand the difference between science and religion or
they don't. If they don't, they shouldn't be shaping science curriculum.