Evolution debate gets personal in Kansas
TOPEKA, Kan. - A discussion about how evolution should be taught in Kansas' public schools degenerated Wednesday into personal attacks among State Board of Education members.
The board reviewed proposed standards drafted by three conservative members, designed to expose students to more criticism of evolution in the classroom.
The standards, which determine how students in fourth, seventh and 10th grades are tested on science, currently describe evolution as a key concept for students to learn before graduating from high school, treating it as the best explanation for how life developed and changed over time.
The three members who drafted the latest proposal are among six conservatives who control the board — and likely to approve much if not all of it. Four moderates, who favor retaining the standards' evolution-friendly tone, assailed the proposal.
Board member Bill Wagnon, of Topeka, told the three conservatives they had become "dupes" of intelligent design advocates and said their proposal was based "on absolute and total fraud."
Board member Sue Gamble, of Shawnee, said while board members should review proposed standards, they shouldn't write their own language, as the three conservatives did. She said the writing should be left to scientists and science teachers.
Board Chairman Steve Abrams, one of the three conservatives who drafted the latest proposal, said he had studied "a huge amount" of science, including in postgraduate classes. He is an Arkansas City veterinarian.
But Gamble replied: "I question your qualifications."
Helping Abrams draft the latest proposal were board members Kathy Martin, of Clay Center, and Connie Morris, of St. Francis. Morris chastised the board's four moderates for not attending the public hearings in May.
During the hearings, 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.
"Had you attended, you would have been informed," Morris said. "You would be sitting here as informed individuals and not arrogantly calling us dupes."
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Connie Morris isn't just a dupe, she's also a liar and a fool.
She's a liar because there are no credible scientists who support “intelligent design.” Consequently, there was nothing for the four sane members of the school board to “have been informed“ about at the hearings apart from her “personal testimony of salvation through Jesus Christ“ that apparently qualifies this elementary school teacher for her job. In fact if anyone should be chastised for being “uninformed,” it should be Connie Morris and her thugish cohorts who, along with the out-of-state hucksters flown-in to testify at taxpayer expense, admitted under oath that they had never even read the existing teaching standards that are so badly in need of change!
Connie Morris is a fool because she's raising her profile just prior to an election year at the same time a scandal is brewing about a recent Miami travel extravaganza that was paid for by - you guessed it - the State Board of Education. Ironically, when pressed about her taxpayer-funded spending habits the normally loud-mouthed, camera-mugging “conservative republican” had no comment.