US: Victory for science

by Jeremy Ryan

Right-wing radicals recently suffered a setback in Texas when the 
State Board of Education refused to ban 11 biology textbooks that 
presented evolution as scientific fact instead of a hypothesis. 
The ultra-conservatives mounted a campaign to prevent the board 
from accepting nine of the texts for use in the state's public 
schools because they contended that the way that the texts 
presented evolution was inaccurate.

Opponents of the textbooks argued that they contained "factual 
errors". In public testimony representatives of the Seattle-based 
Discovery Institute, a think tank that contends that evolution 
should be taught as hypothesis rather than as fact, testified 
that the texts gave too much credence to evolution and ignored 
other theories of creation.

But scientists, teachers, and members of the clergy spoke in 
favour of the texts. Several ministers signed a letter to the 
board opposing "attempts to dilute or censor the teaching of 
evolution in biology textbooks".

A spokesman for the signatories, Steve Lucas, minister of the 
Highland Park Baptist Church in Austin, told the Houston 
Chronicle that "too often in the past a few strident voices 
of extremism have been allowed to determine the discussion around 
biology textbooks".

The board, dominated by conservative Republicans, found it 
difficult to ignore Lucas and its own review committee, which 
found that there were no scientific weaknesses with any of the 
texts. However, the board did require publishers to make minor 
changes to the text in order to mollify opponents of the books.

The decision will affect scientific education in numerous states 
beyond Texas. California, Florida and Texas spend about US$1.2 
billion a year on textbooks, or about 30 percent of the national 
market. As a result, publishers go to great lengths to sell their 
books in these states. Texts "edited" in Texas often end up in 
classes throughout the nation.

Unfortunately, right-wingers and their corporate allies have not 
only been able to edit texts, they have actually been able to ban 
at least one book. The board in 2001 refused to approve 
Environmental Science: Creating a Sustainable Future, by 
Daniel D Chiras. His book was in its sixth edition, well 
respected, and used in high schools and colleges throughout the 
US.

But the board branded the book "factually inaccurate" and banned 
it because the book asserts that there is a scientific consensus 
that global warming is taking place.

Chiras's has filed suit in the Federal Court challenging the 
board's decision.

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People's Weekly World (abridged)