|
« AAUP Homepage
|
AAUP Criticizes Kansas Ruling on Evolution
By Hans Johnson
Closing ranks with disciplinary societies and other professional organizations, the Council of the American Association of University Professors in November issued a statement criticizing an action by the Kansas State Board of Education. The board’s decision to remove references to evolution from its state education standards set off an international backlash still mounting even months after the August board vote in Topeka.
The Council’s statement came as a state committee in neighboring Oklahoma made a similar move to downplay evolution in public-school science instruction. The Oklahoma State Textbook Committee, a government panel assigned to review available publications for local school districts to purchase, voted in early November to place a disclaimer in new biology textbooks that calls evolution a "controversial theory." Earlier, in Kentucky, the State Department of Education ordered that the term "change over time" be substituted for the word "evolution" in state education standards.
The AAUP statement asserts that the Kansas board’s decision "violates the academic freedom of public school teachers to teach what they believe is true, and it may keep students from knowing the overwhelming consensus of scientific opinion" regarding evolution. The statement also endorses an October resolution by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an umbrella group for scientists in research and higher education, which notes that the AAAS "stands ready to assist all concerned citizens of Kansas in securing the repeal of this damaging ruling" by the state school board.
|