Footnote to Sunday

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that

[t]he Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 Tuesday to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but it decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote.

I suspect that last part was some run of the mill CYA after the kangaroo court "hearings" the board held in May didn't go as planned because scientists didn't get suckered into playing against a stacked deck by attending and because one local pro-science attorney volunteered to cross-examine the board's witnesses and proved to be more than up to the task.

But not surprisingly, the 6-4 anti-knowledge majority on the board went ahead and voted in the new substandards anyway. Still, it's clear that they were bruised enough to want some backup, thus the "academic review." Either way, they can cover themselves: The review says "Great!" they say "See? We were right" and roll merrily along; the review says "Yuck!" and they have an out by demonstrating their so very sincere devotion to true science by announcing the need for further "refinement of the standards," which they will undertake in due course.

The standards are used in developing state tests for fourth, seventh and 10th-graders, though local schools have the final say on what is taught in their classrooms. Students will be tested on the new standards in the 2007-08 school year.

The board is expected to vote on final approval of the standards in October.

Which is clearly too late to implement them for 2005-2006. I can't help but suspect that the board's majority wouldn't be at all upset if this whole business faded into the background no matter which way it goes. The thing people such as these like least is close attention.