During its 7 a.m. news broadcast today, KCUR 89.3 reported that the Kansas State Board of Education would hold public hearings in May to address the teaching of evolution to the state's children. The brief quoted Steven Case, a University of Kansas biologist and assistant professor, who told the station that the hearings' organizers lacked academic credibility.
The quote was accurate -- five years ago, when KCUR first ran the same item. A computer error in a database shared by Lawrence's KPR 91.5 and KCUR led to the error. KCUR's has posted a correction.
Case, associate director of the University of Kansas' Center for Science Education, says the mix-up came at the wrong moment.
"The KU chancellor [Bernadette Gray-Little] is at the White House this morning to meet the president about math and science education," Case says.
Oops.
For now, Case says, no one is bringing up that topic in Kansas, either.
The battle over teaching evolution in Kansas public schools started in
1999 and in 2005 included what amounted to a show trial.
Case, who was chairman of the state's Science Education Standards
Curriculum Committee from 2004 to 2005, balked at being part of those
hearings. It was his refusal to take part that KCUR reported this
morning as news.
"Twice was enough for me," Case says of his time in the trenches. "Three would have been way over the top.
"It's
taken a lot of work and building relationships," Case says of the
relative calm that now prevails on the Board of Education. He adds that
enrollment in the state's college math and science programs never
declined over that period and remains strong now. "It was all
political. And teachers in the state did a good job of keeping politics
out of their classrooms. We're still seeing lots of kids declaring
majors in biology and math."
That's good news, Case says,
because 40 percent of Kansas teachers will be eligible for retirement
in the next five years. He cites a 2008 study (PDF here)
funded by the Kauffman Foundation. UKanTeach projects 120
ready-to-teach graduates from its math- and science-directed program by
2014.
Showing 1-1 of 1
120 ready to teach grads?
Where are they going to teach? KCUR reported on the KCK superintendent change this morning and stated that KCK let go of over 100 teachers this past year. As an unemployed teacher, I call BS on these teaching programs. It's a money maker for the education schools which really don't prepare you for the Bureaucratic mess in public schools. Start getting rid of the bloated central office and administrator ranks and start hiring more teachers so the student to teacher ratios are better. Blue Valley has a hiring freeze and classrooms are more crowded. Wake up people!
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