Darwin wins another fight in Kansas
sduford on Feb 14 2007 at 9:38 am | Filed under: Politics, Science
Common sense has prevailed, which is very good news for America. Perhaps the descent back into the dark ages will be averted after all.
By Carey Gillam
TOPEKA, Kansas (Reuters) - The Kansas Board of Education on Tuesday threw out science standards deemed hostile to evolution, undoing the work of Christian conservatives in the ongoing battle over what to teach U.S. public school students about the origins of life.
The board in the central U.S. state voted 6-4 to replace them with teaching standards that mirror the mainstream in science education and eliminate criticisms of evolutionary theory.
“I’m glad we’ve taken this step. If we are going to have a well-educated populace, this is important,” said board member Sue Gamble.
Similar efforts to weaken the teaching of evolution in public schools have occurred throughout the United States including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Kentucky and Georgia.
But Kansas has been in the forefront of the debate since 1999, when the board voted to sharply reduce the emphasis of evolution in science instruction. A public backlash ultimately led to a reversal of that revision.
The new standards, set to take effect immediately, replace those put in place in 2005 by a conservative majority of the board who challenged the validity of evolution and called it incompatible with religious doctrine.
