Kline pledges to defend textbook stickers that question evolution

<p>Kensas Attorney General Phill Kline has offered to defend placing stickers in school textbooks saying evolution is a theory, not a fact, the chairman of the State Board of Education said Wednesday.</p><p>"I firmly believe that it should be allowed," Kline said of the stickers, which he said he would defend in court.</p><p>Steve Abrams, the chairman of the state board, said Kline brought up the subject during meetings with small groups of board members. Kline told The Associated Press he believes such stickers are reasonable, even though a federal judge in Georgia ruled last month that similar stickers are an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.</p><p>Abrams said he is not aware of any board members interested in placing such stickers in textbooks.</p><p>Kline met Tuesday with the six members of the board's conservative majority in two groups of three, which moderate board member Sue Gamble said violated the spirit of the state's open meetings law. The law requires meetings of six or more board members _ a quorum _ be held in public.</p><p>Kline did not immediately return a message seeking comment about the meetings law.</p><p>The board's four moderate members were not included in the meetings, Gamble said. She wasn't surprised the stickers were discussed, but said she didn't know if anyone on the board was pushing the idea.</p><p>"This is just the start. Abstinence education is waiting in the wings," Gamble said.</p><p>Kline's comments came as the board, voting Wednesday along its 6-4 conservative majority, created a three-member panel of board members to hear expert testimony about evolution and its place in the state's science education standards.</p><p>A committee of educators, appointed by the board, is in the process of revising those standards, which currently describe evolution as a key concept students should learn.</p><p>But some conservative members of the board have already clashed with that committee, questioning whether it has properly considered views about teaching creationism or intelligent design alongside evolution.</p><p>The three members of the newly created panel come from the board's conservative majority. All four moderate Republican and Democratic members of the board rejected overtures to join the new panel, saying they did not have the expertise to devise the standards. That job belongs to the committee of educators, they said.</p><p>Abrams said defended the new panel, saying it wasn't designed to circumvent the panel of educators, but to augment their review of science.</p><p>"The committee is still intact," Abrams said.</p><p>The new panel includes Abrams, Kathy Martin, of Clay Center, and Connie Morris, of St. Francis. Martin, a retired science teacher, was elected in 2004, swinging the board to a conservative majority.</p><p>Moderate members said having the board inject itself into the debate dismantled the established process for having recognized experts draft curriculum standards.</p><p>"It totally hijacks the committee process," Gamble said. "We trust the process. We trust the experts."</p><p>Moderate board member Janet Waugh, who lost the chairman's job after the 2004 election, questioned the point of forming the new panel at all, saying the conservatives have already made up their minds to change the standards.</p><p>"The votes are there, so I don't even know why we're doing it," she said.</p><p>Intelligent design is a secular form of creationism that argues the Earth was created by a series of events caused by some intelligent force, not random chance. Evolution says that species change in response to environmental and genetic factors over the course of many generations.</p><p>Steve Case, a University of Kansas professor leading the 26-member committee of science educators, said creating another hearing process could delay final approval of the standards and the timeline for testing students. He has denied views in favor of intelligent design or creationism were being stifled at public hearings.</p><p>"We want to hear all voices, but it's just the overwhelming numbers on this particular issue," Case said. The large number of people at the hearings has limited the ability of all those in attendance to speak, he said.</p><p>The first hearing Feb. 1 in Kansas City, Kan., drew more than 500 people. A hearing set for Tuesday in Topeka was canceled because of weather and rescheduled for Feb. 23. A hearing is set for Thursday in Derby and Feb. 15 in Hays.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x28637c0)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/2/151829