Kansas board of education devolves
Permalink | October 31st, 2005
In a bid to stop the board of education in Kansas from making a horrible mistake by adopting and teaching intelligent design creationism in its schools, two leading scientific organizations have denied Kansas permission to use their copyrighted material in their new standards proposal.
The National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association said the much-disputed new standards “will put the students of Kansas at a competitive disadvantage as they take their place in the world.”
The stinging rebuke came less than two weeks before the state school board is expected to put the science standards into effect. The new standards have also received a lukewarm review from an external education company.
While the copyright denial could cause delay in their adoption, as the standards are rewritten, it is unlikely to derail the board’s conservative majority in its mission to require that challenges to Darwin’s theories be taught in the state’s classrooms.
“Kansas students will not be well-prepared for the rigors of higher education or the demands of an increasingly complex and technologically-driven world if their science education is based on these standards,” Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy, and Michael J. Padilla, president of the teachers’ group, said in a joint written statement today. “Instead, they will put the students of Kansas at a competitive disadvantage as they take their place in the world.”
[via NY Times]
