History entangled in the evolution debate in Kansas
A brief passage about history in science standards for the state's public schools became an issue Monday, as the State Board of Education prepared to vote on a new set of guidelines. Seeking to rewrite anti-evolution standards adopted in 2005, the board targeted for deletion a passage about historic abuses of science citing the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
John West, a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which supports intelligent design research and didn't want the standards rewritten, called the deletion "a travesty" and wrote an angry letter to board members. Among other things, he noted, the deletion would occur during Black History Month.
"The board's plan to whitewash the history of science is shameful," he wrote.
But the passage had drawn criticism from scientists who note that only abuses perceived as linked to evolution were mentioned.
"That was never in the science standards until the intelligent designers inserted it," said Steve Case, associate director of the Center for Science Education at the University of Kansas. "Introducing that was just a way to get at their attack, 'Scientific knowledge is bad.'"