Kansas Science Policy Came From Religious Group, Critics Charge.

Controversial science standards adopted by the Kansas State School Board last summer came from a creationist group that considers itself a religious ministry, critics have charged.

Members of Kansas Citizens for Science (KCFS), a group formed to oppose the new standards, say the anti-evolution policy was authored by Tom Willis, president of the Creation Science Association of Mid-America.

The Kansas board captured national attention Aug. 11 when it voted 6-4 to remove the study of evolution from the state's science standards. Evolution opponents on the board insisted that they drafted the new standards. Board member Scott Hill later remarked, "As the primary author of the compromise standards that were passed, I guarantee that it was not input from fundamentalist religious zealots that did the work."

However, KCFS members tracked down an early version of the standards prepared by Willis and his Citizens Drafting Committee. The Willis draft contained verbatim 40 of 42 items that were eventually included in the standards. The group also uncovered evidence that drafts of the standards were shipped back and forth between Hill, Willis and Steve Abrams, another board member who opposes evolution.

KCFS noted that creationists took credit for the new Kansas policy on their website, writing that their "citizens drafting committee had an unprecedented opportunity to assist members of the Kansas School Board in the development of new Science Curriculum Standards.... The Citizens Drafting Committee prepared several drafts of the proposed Kansas Science Standards...."

The pro-evolution group also noted that a new creationist book on the controversy titled Kansas Tornado states flatly that the standards were drafted at Willis' house in Missouri and that Abrams agreed to submit them under his own name. (Willis's Creation Science Association for Mid-America, based in Cleveland, Mo., says "biblical creation" is "the only `scientific' explanation of origins.")

KCFS members Jack Krebs and Steve Case presented their evidence to the board at a December meeting. "Allowing the creationists to alter the standards in this way is a serious violation in spirit of the separation of church and state," Krebs told the board.

On Dec. 7, the board voted 9-1 to send the standards out for independent review. KCFS members criticized the move as a waste of time and money. Creationism, Krebs noted, is clearly intended to promote a sectarian view.

"By eliminating all standards which contradict Genesis and by inserting many examples that bolster a creationist view, the board has accommodated the religious views of these creationists at the expense of scientific knowledge that is considered essential and accurate worldwide," he said.