Educators decry Kansas vote on evolution as setback for science

OVER THE OBJECTIONS OF SCIENCE teachers and professors, the Kansas state school board voted six to four in August to delete portions of the publicschool science curriculum dealing with evolution. The move, seen as a victory for advocates of biblical creationism on the ten-member elected board, drastically revises the state's standards for science teaching and revives calls for educators to become more involved in the political process.

"It is obvious that the battle to educare children in science is still to be won," declared the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) following the vote. The group surveyed the forty states that have K- 12 science standards and found that "all include some emphasis on evolution," tendering the deviation by Kansas "unprecedented," Several in-state groups, ineluding the Kansas Academy of Sciences, had urged the board to retain its focus on evolution, as did many individual professors at public hearings held before the vote.

While national press accounts tended to treat the vote as a complete disaster, some education policymakers in the state claim its impact may not be as sweeping as first predicted. "The state board makes minimum recommendations, but we are not bound by them in what we can do in addition," says Jack Davidson, a retired professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas who now serves on the local school board in Lawrence. About teaching evolution, he adds, "We can do it anyway."

Contrary to dire warnings about the stigma the vote has placed on state campuses, Davidson believes it wilt not hurt efforts to recruit and keep talented faculty in Kansas. But Davidson, who in 1998 ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the state board, does see long-term consequences for students who plan to go to college, especially in outlying districts, where political pressures may influence teachers not to go beyond the new minimum standards. In such districts, he says, Students may fall short in the science skills that the six state universities will measure when considering applicants starting in 2001, when open enrollment ends.

Educators eager to reverse the vote find themselves allied with the state's governor, Bill Graves (R), who has criticized creationist board members. Five seats on the state school board will be at stake when Kansas voters go to the polls in November 2000.

Meanwhile, in a gesture of defiance toward the revised standards, NSTA and two other national science groups announced in late September that they would deny copyright permission to the Kansas state board, which sought to include passages from the groups' publications in the overhauled science guidelines.