idiots control kansas school science standards
I heard about this story on the radio from 580 WIBW-AM in Topeka, and I just about fell out of my chair. I literally did not believe it until I saw the visual proof (use Bugmenot): A Kansas State Board of Education member, Connie Morris of St. Francis, Kansas (in the far-northwest corner of the state), referred to evolutionary theory as an “age-old fairy tale”, defended with “anti-God contempt and arrogance”.
Evolution is an “age-old fairy tale,” sometimes defended with “anti-God contempt and arrogance,” according to a Kansas State Board of Education member involved in writing new science standards for Kansas’ public schools.
A newsletter written by board member Connie Morris, of St. Francis, was circulating Monday. In it, Morris criticized those who defend evolution.
She called evolution “a theory in crisis” and headlined one section of her newsletter “The Evolutionists are in Panic Mode!”
“It is our goal to write the standards in such a way that clearly gives educators the right AND responsibility to present the criticism of Darwinism alongside the age-old fairy tale of evolution,” Morris wrote.
Morris was one of three board members who last week endorsed proposed science standards designed to expose students to more criticism of evolution in the classroom. The other two were board Chairman Steve Abrams, of Arkansas City, and Kathy Martin, of Clay Center.
She was in Topeka for meetings at the Kansas State Department of Education’s headquarters and wasn’t available for interviews.
But her views weren’t a surprise to Jack Krebs, vice president of Kansas Citizens for Science, an Oskaloosa educator.
“Her belief is in opposition to mainstream science,” he said.
The entire board plans to review the three members’ proposed standards Wednesday. The new standards — like the existing, evolution-friendly ones — determine how students in fourth, seventh and 10th grades are tested on science.
In 1999, the Kansas board deleted most references to evolution from the science standards. Elections the next year resulted in a less conservative board, which led to the current, evolution-friendly standards. Conservative Republicans recaptured the board’s majority in 2004 elections.
The three board members had four days of hearings in May, during which witnesses criticized evolutionary theory that natural chemical processes may have created the first building blocks of life, that all life has descended from a common origin and that man and apes share a common ancestor. Evolution is attributed to 19th Century British scientist Charles Darwin.
Organizing the case against evolution were intelligent design advocates. Intelligent design says some features of the natural world are so complex and well-ordered that they are best explained by an intelligent cause.
In their proposed standards, the three board members said they took no position on intelligent design, but their work followed the suggestions of intelligent design advocates.
In her newsletter, Morris said she is a Christian who believes the account of creation in the Book of Genesis is literally true. She also acknowledged that many other Christians have no trouble reconciling faith and evolution.
“So be it,” Morris wrote. “But the quandary exists when poor science — with anti-God contempt and arrogance — must insist that it has all the answers.”
National and state science groups boycotted May’s hearings before Morris and the other two board members, viewing them as rigged against evolution.
“They desperately need to withhold the fact that evolution is a theory in crisis and has been crumbling apart for years,” Morris said.
But Krebs said Morris is repeating “standard creationist rhetoric.”
“People have been saying evolution is a theory in crisis for 40 or 50 years,” Krebs said. “Yet the scientific community has been strengthening evolution every year.”
Unbelievable.
Memo to state legislators: If you would really like to help this state, this is what I propose you do — draft today a State Constitutional amendment which dissolves the State Board of Education, and then appropriate that money for the Governor’s use to fund a Department of Education with a Secretary that is answerable to both the Governor and the Statehouse. You are the ones who should be accountable for education in this state, not some unqualified collection of people who cannot possibly grasp all the issues facing educators.
You might argue “well, you Kansas elected these Board members, so you got what you deserve.” You would not be wrong to do so. We elect our Board of Education, we elect our Secretary of State (chief election official), and we elect our Attorney General.
What has it gotten us? Nothing but time- and money-wasting turf battles and grandstanding. Just as the President of the United States appoints his Cabinet members and they are confirmed by the Senate, so too should the Governor of Kansas have the power to appoint cabinet-level ministers subject to Statehouse confirmation. Board of Education seats are big, easy targets for special-interest groups, like the church-activist groups Ms. Morris is so clearly allied with.
This stuff has no place in a science classroom. These people know that, and don’t care. They should not be responsible for education of children.
UPDATE [12:40 07.14]: Blogger and longtime evolution commenter Josh Rosenau has the entire text of Morris’ rambling statement (in which at least two conspiracy theories are proffered). My suggestion would be to switch to decaf (Morris, that is, not Josh).
07.12.2005 @ 12:17
Tell me, please – why do you hate Jesus so much?
I’ll blog on this tonight I hope.
07.12.2005 @ 12:26
Good one
I know you’ve written that you’re an atheist. I am not, but I am (or rather, I was) an educator, and I know the difference between science and not.
The Board of Education apparently doesn’t.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s the main difference: all science should be fair game in a science classroom (even SCIENTIFIC THEORIES that oppose evolution – which creationism and ID are not), and all not-science (like creationism and ID) should be discussed somewhere else.
07.12.2005 @ 13:38
I have the text of the offending newsletter up at Thoughts from Kansas. Connie Morris is a very angry person.
On the other hand, an appointed secretary would be no guarantee of good standards. A radical Republican governor could appoint an unaccountable wacko.
07.12.2005 @ 14:02
Or a radical-left Democrat could appoint a raving socialist or the head of the teacher’s union.
Statehouse confirmation makes this more unlikely than having a special-interest group (of any sort) cherry-pick three or four BOE seats.
07.12.2005 @ 17:13
More has overflown flyover country than airplanes, methinks — like the last two centuries.
07.12.2005 @ 18:01
Today’s Links 2005 07 12 Tuesday
Since this is amalgamation of two days worth of links, may be a bit longer than usual. Some of the stuff linked to may also be a little older than usual
**********
RINO Sightings III is up at
07.13.2005 @ 11:48
But compare the relative frequencies of ravign socialists to unaccountable wackos and tell me which is more likely.
07.13.2005 @ 18:17
In the school system, the two groups of socialists and unaccountable people have quite a large intersection.
And the sets of “you” and “amateur partisan flacks” has an intersection of size 1.
07.13.2005 @ 19:22
J.D. on Connie Morris
idiots control kansas school science standards
“Unbelievable”
Evolution is an “age-old fairy tale,†sometimes defended with “anti-God contempt and arrogance,†according to a Kansas State Board of Education member involved in writ…
07.14.2005 @ 08:22
Quick Links
*** 25 years for the 63 year-old Ebbers, huh? That’s no joke. *** More Kansas Creationist hijinks. No State Board of Education statements on the evils of Harry Potter … yet. *** Fantastic news! *** Item: “Revenue Surge Shrinks Deficit.”…
07.14.2005 @ 12:06
Yipe! I thought you and I were on the same side of this issue, at least.
My point was that if Shallenburger had won, what would have stopped him from appointing Connie Morris as the Secretary of Education? Would the State Senate really have refused her?
Have yet to meet any socialists in the education system, but maybe I haven’t been asking enough questions about the means of production. Since the issue is public office, I’m more interested in the number of socialists in public life in Kansas, a set which I believe to be null, but am prepared to admit my error if confronted with evidence.
07.14.2005 @ 12:32
That may be. We may also be on the same side of this issue. It’s funny, though: in all your comments here, it seems like you are disappointed when you discover that all conservatives aren’t Connie Morris. When you meet one that isn’t (as a large number are not), you have no idea how to react.
It’s okay, we don’t bite.
And I’ll say it unequivocally: We are on the same side of this issue.
The problem is that under the current system, everyone gets to deflect accountability for this nonsensical situation, and no one pays the price for it at election time. Putting it on the backs of the Governor’s office and the Legislature (through their nomination/confirmation of officials) will ensure that someone does.
07.14.2005 @ 13:06
I think this is the first time I’ve left comments here, at least the first time in a good long while.
The trepidation I feel is that, while you don’t support Morris, the legislators you endorse, even if they are moderate Republicans, will vote to put conservatives like Doug Mays and Tim Shallenburger in positions of power, and not moderate voices that I can find common ground with. I have real trouble understanding how someone who opposes Morris could support the party that supports her. I count $1000 in donations from the Kansas Republican Victory Fund, and another $1000 from a shadow group associated with them.
That’s not an attack, it’s just a question, how does a moderate handle the extremism of the party leadership. This is not a problem the Democratic Party has, so I don’t know.
I agree that the Board of Ed is a flawed system, but I’m not sure that taking it away from the people is a good solution.
Maybe the governor should appoint a commissioner of education, and a locally elected state-wide Board would lose some power to that person. But putting all that power on an unelected person with a short term of service seems like a recipe for disaster. In either of our scenarios, you could have rapid cycling in the ways that schools are funded and the standards governing teaching. That can’t be good. The overlapping terms of the current system ensure continuity.
As far as evolution, I’m more concerned with educating the public and getting them to reject people like Morris. No reason to reject the democratic process.
07.14.2005 @ 15:18
You have another misconception: I don’t support the Republican Party. People who feel as I do do support the party, and they have their reasons for doing so. Maybe it’s the one that comes the closest, and they see nowhere else to turn. I am not one of those.
Since we’ve been using mathematical analogies, let’s use another one to describe the relationship between conservatives and Republicans: These sets are not disjoint, their intersection is not empty, but neither is a subset of the other.
The other points you make are good ones. I am aware that as an anti-statist I am proposing a more statist solution to this problem. My theory was that the Governor’s office and Legislative seats are a bit harder for special-interest groups to cherry-pick than BOE seats, which few people follow. I think that if more people watched the current BOE format that it might “fix” itself.
07.14.2005 @ 15:27
And, Josh, you were right about the comments thing. Your first comment here was 2/19, and there hadn’t been another since. I’m not sure why I’d thought you had.
Anyway, don’t be such a stranger.
07.23.2005 @ 00:37
Re: the couple of comments about no “socialists” in education. Public education is socialized. Everyone in public education is a “socialist” when it come to education!
07.23.2005 @ 22:33
That, my friends, is the illustration of a complete dope.
And, a non-punctual dope at that.