Kansas school board approves science standards casting doubt on evolution

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Risking the kind of nationwide ridicule it faced six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards Nov. 8 that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.\nThe 6-4 vote was a victory for "intelligent design" advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.\nCritics of the new language charged that it was an attempt to inject God and creationism into public schools therefore violating of the separation of church and state.\nAll six of those who voted for the new standards were Republican. Two Republicans and two Democrats voted against the proposed standards.\n"This is a sad day. We're becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that," said board member Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat.\nSupporters of the new standards said they will promote academic freedom. \nThe new standards say high school students must understand major evolutionary concepts. But they also declare that the basic Darwinian theory -- that all life had a common origin and that natural chemical processes created the building blocks of life -- has been challenged in recent years by fossil evidence and molecular biology.\nIn addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.\nThe new standards will be used to develop student tests to measure how well schools teach science. Decisions about what is taught in classrooms will remain with 300 local school boards, but some educators fear pressure will increase in some communities to teach less about evolution or more about creationism or intelligent design.\nThe vote marked the third time in six years that the Kansas board has rewritten standards with evolution as the central issue.\nMany scientists and other critics contend creationists repackaged old ideas in new, scientific-sounding language to get around a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1987 against teaching the biblical story of creation in public schools.\nThe Kansas board's action is part of a national debate. In Pennsylvania, a judge is expected to rule soon in a lawsuit against the Dover school board's policy of requiring high school students to learn about intelligent design in biology class. In August, President Bush endorsed teaching intelligent design alongside evolution.