US: The Kansas Board of Education has voted that students will be expected to study doubts about modern Darwinian theory, a move that defied the nation's scientific establishment even as it gave voice to religious conservatives and others who question the theory of evolution.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania voters have ousted a local school board that promoted an "intelligent-design" alternative to teaching evolution, and elected a new slate of candidates who promised to remove the concept from science classes.
The board of Dover Area School District in south-central Pennsylvania lost eight of its nine incumbents in an upset election that surprised even the challengers, who had been hoping for a bare majority to take control of the board.The ousted board was the first school board in the US to implement such a policy. For the last six weeks, the teaching of intelligent design has been challenged in federal court by a group of Dover parents. They say the concept is a religious belief and therefore may not be taught in public schools, because the US constitution forbids it. They also argue the theory is unscientific and so has no place in science classes.
By a 6-4 vote on Tuesday in Kansas that supporters cheered as a victory for free speech and opponents denounced as shabby politics and worse science, the Kansas School Board said high school students should be told that aspects of widely accepted evolutionary theory are "controversial". Among other points, the standards allege a "lack of adequate natural explanations for the genetic code".
"This is a great day for education. This is one of the best things that we can do. This absolutely teaches more about science," said Steve Abrams, the Republican Kansas board chairman who shepherded the majority that overruled a 26-member science committee and turned aside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association.
Opposing board members accused Mr Abrams and his colleagues of hiding behind a fiction of scientific inquiry to inject religion into public schools. They said the decision would be bad for education, bad for business and bad for the state's wounded reputation.
The Kansas board does not mandate what will be taught to public school students, a decision left to local school boards. But by determining what students are expected to know for state tests, the state standards typically influence what students learn.
Although a lawsuit is possible, some opposed to changes to science teaching said politics may be the swifter route. Four of the six board members voting yes will face re-election next year and three members already have drawn opposition. -(LA Times/Washington Post service, additional reporting Reuters)