Kansans wary
As a media horde turned national — even world — attention on their state, Kansans were watching the trial of evolutionary theory with mixed feelings.

Connie Morris, a member of the state school board, welcomed the hearings, agreeing with witnesses who said theories of evolution did not fully explain the origins of life and called for a more critical view.

Students need access to all kinds of thought, Morris told NBC affiliate KSNT-TV of Topeka. “The crux of the debate for me is quality education. The last time I checked, it's about good education. We need to give students all information in scientific arena.”

But opponents said the idea was bad science that threatened to make Kansas a laughingstock.

“They want a theocracy,” Harry McDonald, a former science teacher who is president of the group Kansas Citizens for Science, told the Kansas City Star. “Evolution doesn’t mean that there isn’t a god. But they make it out that if you believe in evolution, you’re an atheist. They’ve made it a cultural war.”

Fast Forward     Evolution in schools The Kansas debate comes as many states are gearing up to accept bids on new science textbooks: — 2005: Alabama, Florida, Illinois*, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia — 2006: Arkansas, California, Illinois*, Nevada, Utah* — 2007: Georgia, Illinois*, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah* (* Illinois and Utah review texts in most or all subjects annually.) Source: Association of American Publishers

Joanne Olson, a professor who studies science education at Iowa State University, told the newspaper: “The sad thing is, the more this hits the press around the world, the worse Kansas and, by association, the U.S. looks. I was at a conference not long ago. They were laughing about Kansas.”

Publishers call the tune
For mainstream scientists, the Kansas debate is just a skirmish. The real battles will come in the next few years as schools adopt new textbooks.

Intelligent design campaigns are being pursued in California and Texas. Their school boards have long dictated the content of many of the nation’s textbooks because of the clout they have with publishers owing to their enormous student populations. Publishers routinely tailor their textbooks to the tastes of review boards in those states to avoid the devastating prospect that a multimillion-dollar new edition could be rejected.

“They call the tune, and the publishers dance,” Diane Ravitch, an assistant education secretary in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush, testified before Congress two years ago.

The result, Ravitch complained, was the creation of “a convenient bottleneck where pressure groups from across the political spectrum” — including opponents of evolution, she said — “can intimidate publishers and get them to revise their books.”

EVOLUTION DEBATE Day-by-day coverage of the evolution hearings in Kansas: The evolution of a fight to the end Day 4: Evolution hearings end on bitter note Day 3: Critics say creationism is true agenda Day 2: Groans and grumblings at evolution hearing Day 1: Evolution education criticized Live survey: What should be taught?

Ravitch’s testimony came as Texas was going through a wrenching review of its biology texts; those books were introduced into Texas classrooms this year. Mainstream scientists fought off major concessions on evolution this time, but the battle is being continued in the Legislature, where a bill is under consideration that would give the state Board of Education — which is dominated by Republican social conservatives — even more control over the content of texts.

In California, meanwhile, a case awaits in U.S. District Court filed by parents who claim that they were denied their civil rights when a school district near Sacramento rejected their proposal that schools should be required to teach the purported flaws of evolution.

While California’s textbook battles have usually been fought by groups pushing more traditionally liberal causes, such as gender equality and multicultural history, the lawsuit signals that the evolution dispute is likely to become a hot-button issue there, as well — just in time to begin picking up steam ahead of next year’s acceptance of bids for new science textbooks.

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