AP Evolution Opponents Lose Kansas Board Majority

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Kansas-Evolution.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
....August 2, 2006
Evolution Opponents Lose Kansas Board Majority
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:01 a.m. ET

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Conservative Republicans who approved new classroom standards that call evolution into question lost control of the State Board of Education in Tuesday's primary election.

A victory by pro-evolution Republican candidate Jana Shaver over conservative Republican Brad Patzer, who supported the standards treating evolution as a flawed theory, meant conservatives would at best have five of 10 seats on the board.

Five seats were up for election in the primary, the latest skirmish in a seesawing battle between faith and science that has opened Kansas up to international ridicule.

Conservative Republican John Bacon kept his seat by besting two pro-evolution challengers. But Shaver's win split the makeup of the board between evolution supporters and opponents. She won a seat that was vacant because a conservative Republican evolution opponent was retiring.

[Robbien]

1. Over in the Kansas DU state forum

DUer Mabus posted a good summary of what this election was all about, who the players are, and all the politics involved in this school board election.

Those interested in knowing more go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=153x5192

[dorktv]

2. Yay!

[lapfog_1]

3. Good, maybe soon I can hold my head up and tell everyone

that I'm from Kansas! recently, I've been a little embarrassed to state that.

[kevinbgoode]

4. Why did Bacon have TWO opponents?

That obviously split up the vote - could he have been given the boot as well?

[kevinbgoode]

5. Oops..sorry..it's a primary....but still

geez...ANYTHING to get those wingnuts out of power.

[xchrom]

6. maybe these conservative tapeworms will finally leave america.

they hate it here -- so they should go.

[Cobalt-60]

7. too late

Kansas has joined Tennessee as an official State of Ignorance.

[rpannier]

8. That disappoints me

I was planning on moving to Kansas and teach science. I wanted to teach that evolution was a fraud and that the universe had a creator. And that Creator was...

Rick! The all knowing, all powerful, all encompassing God that created everything and everyone. That all other explanations for the origins of life were outright frauds (like Genesis).

I guess I'll have to wait for some other state to elect Neanderthal troglodytes to their state school board.

[Demeter]

9. I Was Afraid The Creator's Name Was "Dubya"

Actually, the Destroyer's name is Dubya....

[Canuckistanian]

12. He is become Death, the shatterer of worlds...

And you wouldn't want to have a beer with him, either.

[tanyev]

10. Praise Jesus!

:+

[ck4829]

11. Time for Pat Robertson to put on his Angry Face

And threaten to hire God as a hitman to get Kansas if they do this.

[Canuckistanian]

13. Great news for humanity

It's a small victory for the forces of reason against the world of superstition and ignorance.

This had NOTHING to do with "faith".

[sgxnk]

14. good

a victory for science!

and in reference to above. MOST scientific theories are flawed

they are either incomplete, fail to work at all scales and levels (see many aspects of euclidean geometry/physics) , etc.

so WHAT?

the point is that ID is not science in the first place. i have no problem with teaching that evolution is 'flawed"

so is quantum physics.

has nothing to do with wanting to teach ID, which is not science in the first place, as an :"alternative theory"

sorry. that is hella bogus

no public school should teach ID at all

[Gully Foyle]

15. Hrumph

Why are they not labeled Creationists?

[WhiteTara]

18. good question Gully Foyle

welcome to DU :hi:

[Realityhack]

24. How about religious extreamists uposed to modern science

The closer to the truth the better.
Oponents of evolution... Hrumph is right.

[rayofreason]

16. Good news...

...but I won't be happy until there is no question that science, and not pseudoscience, will be the curriculum in Kansas science classes.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. YAHOOOOOO!!!!!

Not the greatest result, but damn good. These neanderthals have to be turned out of office wherever they show up.

[klook]

19. Wonderful news

As Steven Colbert has pointed out, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

Judging from a scan of today's Creep Republic posts, even those morAns agree that this is for the best. So it seems Evolution vs. Creationism could be an effective wedge issue for Dems to split the Rethug vote.

[question everything]

20. Nice to hear some good news... for a change (nt)

[electron_blue]

21. oh good. Thanks for posting this. I tried to find on my own and couldn't

[tblue37]

22. On my "Teacher, Teacher" website

I have an article about the Kansas BOE and its first attempt to undercut the teaching of evolution and to sneak creationism into our schools:"Scopes Revisited?: The Kansas Board of Education's 1999 Decision on Evolution":
http://teacherblue.homestead.com/scopes.html

At the end of the piece, I say:

The Kansas Board of Education's decision was a wake-up call to Kansans of diverse political persuasions, and it got them to the polls to vote for BOE candidates who would restore macroevolution to the state's testing standards. But people are busy--and perhaps a little lazy, too. The public will probably doze off again, until some other widely publicized political decision reminds them that it is dangerous to neglect our responsiblity to participate in the political process.

I knew it would happen again as people took their eyes off the ball, but I actually was surprised that it happened so soon. I thought it would take a couple of election cycles, not just one, to return a conservative anti-evolution majority to the Board of Education.

As long as people think they only have to correct the problem and then forget about it, these people will keep coming back, relentlessly. They never stop, and they never rest. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" (Thomas Jefferson).

[Anakin Skywalker]

23. Dorothy, Safe to Come Home

....for now (until the tide changes again in 4 years).