Thanks to Adrian Melott for pssing this along.

NL

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News Release


August 5, 1999
For Immediate Release

For More Information:
Contact Steve Case
(913) 980-9754


Group Calls Science Standards Before State BOE "Unacceptable,"
Vows to Fight for Sound Kansas School Science Standards



The Kansas Board of Education is scheduled to vote on new science
standards for public school science classes on Wednesday, August 11s.
But if the religious conservatives on the Board win the vote, Kansas
public school science students will be the losers, say members of a
group called Citizens For Science. Disgusted with the standards the
Board is about to vote on, the group is taking a public stand against
them and in favor of quality science standards for Kansas schools.

The group will hold a press conference to voice its objections to the
standards at 2:00 PM on Sunday, August 8, on the East steps of Dyche
Hall on the University of Kansas campus.

Citizens for Science, composed of scientists, educators, science
professionals, parents and other Kansans who are interested in science
education, calls the current version of the standards "unacceptable."
They say despite conservative BOE member Scott Hill's assurance that it
is "95% unchanged" from a previous version produced by a 27-member
writing committee, the changes are in fact quite extensive. The group
objects to the altered standards because they severely downplay
micro-evolution and delete all references to macro-evolution and
cosmology (study of the origins of the universe), delete the teaching
of common understandings of the earth sciences and even call into
question some of the laws of physics.

Steve Case, a spokesperson for Citizens For Science, says, "The altered
standards give children an incomplete view of the natural world and a
distorted view of the nature of science. This would likely be reflected
in poor scores on college entrance exams." Case, the Director of the
Kansas Collatorative Research Network, has been a teacher, worked in
scientific research labs, and was a member of the original 27-member
science standards writing committee.

Vigilance and action are keys to fighting threats to science education,
say group members, and they plan to monitor those threats as they come
up and to support Kansas teachers in resisting pressure against the
teaching of evolution and other accepted scientific theories in public
school classrooms.

"Our children deserve the best science education we can give them, for
their future and for the future of our state and country," said
Elizabeth Craig, a group member. "We intend to do all we can to see
that they get it."