Evolution Returns to Kansas: Board Supports Science Standards - Brief Article

To the relief of scientists and science educators both locally and nationwide, evolution has returned to Kansas. In a widely watched vote on Valentine's Day, February 14, evolution was restored as a central theory to Kansas school standards.

The newly constituted State Board of Education voted 7 to 3 to approve the new science standards. The new standards include questions on evolution, which will now be considered one of the unifying concepts of the state's science curriculum. References to the great age of Earth and to the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe were also restored.

The new standards are based on scientific theories accepted by the majority of scientists around the world. They draw on documents from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Teachers Association. The three organizations issued a joint statement praising the new board's actions.

"These standards can and should serve as a model for other states that are considering revising their own standards," the statement said.

The vote reverses an August 1999 action of the Board on a 6 to 4 vote that had stripped evolution from its accepted place at the center of biological studies and created a furor that embarrassed Kansas educators and politicians and rippled throughout the nation. Governor Bill Graves had called the Board's 1999 action "terrible, tragic, embarrassing" (SI November/December 1999).

That vote aroused the states scientific community and others concerned about creationist interventions in educational standards for science courses. New candidates, with an invigorated pro-science movement in Kansas behind them, actively campaigned for restoration of evolution content. On August 1, 2000, two of the six members who had voted for the watered-down 1999 standards were rejected in the Republican primaries. A third member resigned and moved out of the state. Sue Gamble, a moderate who ran on a pro-science education plank, defeated Board chairwoman Linda Holloway, who had supported the creationist-influenced standards (SI, November/December 2000).

That set the stage for new standards restoring evolution, the Big Bang, and Earth's age to science curricula. The board discussed the standards for thirty minutes. A pro-creationist revision amendment was defeated. Then, with eight television cameras watching, including one from CNN, the board voted 7 to 3 for the new standards. After the positive vote, some people in the audience applauded.

"I believe now that we have science standards that the rest of the world could look to," said board member Carol Rupee, who voted for them.

"I'm really gratified that this chapter is over," said John Stager, a Kansas State University professor and co-chairman of the 27-member committee of science educators who wrote the new standards. But he cautioned that the fight is not over.

John Calvert, managing director of the Intelligent Design Network, which proposes that life arose not through natural processes but through design, expressed disappointment in the vote. He said his group plans to push intelligent design to school boards across the country.

Said Shawnee, Kansas, businessman Dave Raffel, an evolution supporter: "This is one step down a long road that there doesn't seem to be any end to."

Kendrick Frazier is Editor of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
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