17.6 Kansas Evolution Hearings

To introduce Intelligent Design in public school science classrooms, one arm of the Intelligent Design movement, the Discovery Institute, arranged to conduct hearings to review the evidence for evolution in the light of its Critical Analysis of Evolution lesson plans. In 2005 the Kansas State Board of Education eventually adopted the institute’s Critical Analysis of Evolution lesson plans over objections of the State Board Science Hearing Committee. On 1 August 2006, 4 of the 6 conservative Republicans who approved the new rule lost their seats in a primary election. The moderate Republican and Democrats gaining seats vowed to overturn the 2005 school science standards and adopt those recommended by a State Board Science Hearing Committee that were rejected by the previous board, and on 13 February 2007, the Board voted 6 to 4 to reject the amended science standards enacted in 2005.