PZ Myers. 2003 Aug 16. Eternal Vigilance. <http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/eternal_vigilance/>. Accessed 2008 Aug 29.

Posted on M00o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr on Saturday, August 16, 2003

Eternal Vigilance

Kansas is at it again. Their state board of education is planning to revisit the issue of evolutionary biology in the school standards. You’d think they’d learn. Actually, the creationists have: this time, they want to avoid the issue because it was such a PR disaster the last time. I’m sure they’d rather work quietly behind the scenes, whittling good science away, in the same way that our Minnesota commissioner wants to avoid evolution altogether at the state level and leave it in the capable (hah!) hands of local school boards.

One of the interesting things in the article is the brief history of the board elections. After Kansas made themselves an international laughing-stock in 1999 by trying to abolish evolution from the schools, the 2000 election resulted in a 7-3 majority in favor of restoring evolution, showing that the public has more sense than the blinkered special interests trying to push their anti-scientific agenda. Unfortunately, with that issue resolved, the 2002 election led to more anti-evolution board members getting elected, so the board is now evenly split 5-5...which demonstrates that the public also has a short attention span. You just can’t let your vigilance slide, ever, I guess.

Reading this article did make me aware that I’m ignorant of something. Kansas has an elected commission to handle education in their state. I’m trying to puzzle out exactly how these matters are determined in my state of Minnesota—and the Minnesota Department of Education web site isn’t much help. Near as I can tell, the schools get their marching orders from a commissioner (currently, Cheri Yecke) who is appointed by the governor. It seems much more autocratic than the Kansas system, and we seem to have much less opportunity for redress when a creationist sympathizer gets placed at the helm.