Dentist Don McLeroy is chairman of the Texas State Board of Education and he is leading the fight against Texas' science curriculum. A "young earth" creationist, McLeroy believes that the earth is between 6000 and 10,000 years old. He wants Texas school children to be taught that natural selection cannot explain the complexity of cells.
This is not just about Texas. The decision about how science is to be presented in Texas public schools will almost certainly impact the language that is included in textbooks used everywhere in the country. Publishing companies will want to avoid the expense of printing a Texas-only version of science, so the policies defined by the board headed by McLeroy will influence science education nation-wide.
According to a profile piece on McLeroy published in the Austin American-Statesman on Sunday, March 8, 2009, McLeroy believes that evolution's "scientific weakness" should be included in the state's science curriculum standards.
"When I became a Christian, it was whole-hearted," McLeroy said. "I was totally convinced the biblical principles were right, and I was totally convinced that it could be accurate scientifically."
The Statesman profile notes that McLeroy's critics include over 600 Texas science faculty members who have signed a petition opposing McLeroy's efforts to include the supposed weaknesses of evolution in the public school curriculum.
The petition is endorsed by the 21st Century Science Coalition, a group formed specifically to combat what many Texas scientists view as an attempt to replace a scientifically accurate presentation of evolution with a discussion that includes supernatural explanations.
University of Texas professor David Hillis, one of the founders of the 21st Century Science Coalition, warns that the proposed amendments will seriously damage science education in the state.
"If Chairman McLeroy is successful in adding his amendments, it will be a huge embarrassment to Texas, a setback for science education and a terrible precedent for the state boards overriding academic experts in order to further their personal religious or political agendas. The victims will be the schoolchildren of Texas, who represent the future of our state."
By an 8-7 vote in January, the board voted to move away from the language used in the current curriculum guidelines, which requires students to study the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. Many scientists view the term "strengths and weaknesses" as code for opposition to evoltion. The phrase has become a virtual rallying-cry for advocates of teaching intelligent design, who use it to suggest that evolution is scientifically weak.
Althought the narrow defeat of the "strengths and weaknesses" language in January was widely viewed as a defeat for the creationist agenda, it was only a preliminary vote. The board plans to make a final decision on the state's science curriculum guidelines on March 27. Read the source article here.