The Washington Post is reporting that the members of the Dover, Pennsylvania school board who voted in favor of a change in the science curriculum to give deference to so-called Intelligent Design theory have been soundly defeated at the polls.
DOVER, Pa. — Voters came down hard Tuesday on school board members who backed a statement on intelligent design being read in biology class, ousting eight Republicans and replacing them with Democrats who want the concept stripped from the science curriculum.
The election unfolded amid a landmark federal trial involving the Dover public schools and the question of whether intelligent design promotes the Bible’s view of creation. Eight Dover families sued, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
Dover’s school board adopted a policy in October 2004 that requires ninth-graders to hear a prepared statement about intelligent design before learning about evolution in biology class.
Eight of the nine school board members were up for election Tuesday. They were challenged by a slate of Democrats who argued that science class was not the appropriate forum for teaching intelligent design.
“My kids believe in God. I believe in God. But I don’t think it belongs in the science curriculum the way the school district is presenting it,” said Jill Reiter, 41, a bank teller who joined a group of high school students waving signs supporting the challengers Tuesday.
I don’t often cheer when Democrats win, but I will on this one. Any defeat for the moonbat wing of the GOP is a victory in my book. Perhaps now the Republican Party will start to learn that it needs to stop coddling to the Pat Robertsons of the world and join the rest of us in the 21st Century.
One observation — this may mean that if the School Board loses the trial, which is currently under advisement with the judge who heard it, they will not appeal the decision, thus depriving ID advocates of a new forum for their cause.
Update @ 4pm: Steve Verdon has more about the Dover case, and the idiotic decision of the Kansas Board of Education over at Outside The Beltway.
Linked with Basil’s Blog
