Kansas Rewrites Evolution

In the classrooms of Kansas, the board has been taking a lot of heat, reports CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman.

The Kansas State Board of Education approved science standards that de-emphasize evolution two months ago, but copyright problems are helping to keep the issue in the public eye.

What the Kansas board didn't count on was a scientific blockade, courtesy of the three groups that write the nation's science standards. They've told Kansas that their science curriculum is copyrighted - take all of it or you can't use any of it. So the Kansas board decided to turn its back on the national standards for science and write its own.

"It's mainly a matter of rewording, which is not really a very lengthy process. They will do it and get it to the copyright lawyer. That will give us the assurance that it will pass," said Linda Holloway, chairwoman of the Kansas Board of Education.

The board voted 7-3 on Tuesday to direct Education Commissioner Andy Tompkins to come back to the board with proposed changes in the 94-page document outlining the standards.

Three national science groups are refusing to let the board include their copyrighted materials in the Kansas testing standards because of the board's stance on evolution.

"We do have to defend good science from bad science. Evolution is the unifying principle in science. To pervert it or modify it or eliminate it destroys the very nature of science," said Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association.

Holloway, who supports the new standards, said she hopes rewriting them will not only avoid copyright problems but end the debate over the standards.

Asked if she was eager to bring debate to a close, Holloway responded, "It's time."

However, board member Janet Waugh, of Kansas City, who opposed the new standards, said solving the copyright problems is not likely to end the rancor over the standards.

"I feel that there's a lot of emotion playing across the state," she said. "I think that the education community and other people out there who want their children to get the very best education possible, recommended by experts, possibly will keep it alive."

Waugh also said the evolution vote will be a major issue in board elections next year. Five of the 10 members, including Holloway and three others who supported the new standards, face re-election then.

It is a replay of the famous 1925 Scopes monkey trial. Then, as now, the theory that man is descended from the apes was pitted against those who believe the Bible, literally, when it says man was created in just six days. The latter belief is called "creationism."

Just as Tennessee was divided, so is Kansas. The teaching of evolution isn't just a Kansas question. Recently, Kentucky took the word out of its curriculum. But just last week, New Mexico went the other way, voting not just to keep evolution in the clasroom, but to keep creationism out.