Evolution debate gets personal in Kansas

Advocates of intelligent design, which says some features of the natural world are so complex and well-ordered that they are best explained by an intelligent cause, organized the case against evolution during the hearings.

A newsletter from Morris circulated earlier this week, in which she derided evolution as an "age-old fairy tale" and criticized the four moderates by name.

"If we're going to ask the citizens of the state not to attack us, we have to be professional and not attack each other," said board member Janet Waugh, of Kansas City.

The board didn't make a decision Wednesday about the standards, but it told a committee of educators to review the proposal. Abrams said he also intended to have a second, external review it in July. That suggests the board won't vote until at least August.

The chairman of the educators' panel, Steve Case, said he's not sure what board members expect from his group. A majority of the educators supported evolution-friendly language.

"I know they don't want us to go in and take all of the changes out, which is what three-quarters of the committee will want to do," said Case, also the assistant director of the Center for Science Education at the University of Kansas.

The ongoing debate over how evolution should be taught has brought international attention to Kansas. The four days of hearings in May attracted journalists from Canada, France, Great Britain and Japan.

Battles over evolution also have occurred in recent years in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Kansas law requires the board to update its academic standards regularly, setting up this year's debate.

In 1999, the Kansas board deleted most references to evolution from the science standards, bringing international condemnation and ridicule to Kansas. Elections the next year resulted in a less conservative board, which led to the current, evolution-friendly standards. Conservative Republicans recaptured the board's majority in 2004 elections.

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