A prominent opponent of teaching evolution in public schools is set to become the President-elect of the National Association of School Boards:
The National Association of State Boards of Education will elect officers in July, and for one office, president-elect, there is only one candidate: a member of the Kansas school board who supported its efforts against the teaching of evolution.
Scientists who have been active in the nation?s evolution debate say they want to thwart his candidacy, but it is not clear that they can.
The candidate is Kenneth R. Willard, a Kansas Republican who voted with the conservative majority in 2005 when the school board changed the state?s science standards to allow inclusion of intelligent design, an ideological cousin of creationism. Voters later replaced that majority, but Mr. Willard, an insurance executive from Hutchinson, retained his seat. If he becomes president-elect of the national group, he will take office in January 2009.
One would have thought that the overwhelming defeat that his forces suffered in Kanas would’ve sent this guy back where he came from.
May 19th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
There are two national associations–National Association of State Boards of Education and the National School Boards Association. The latter is much larger and much more influential. Mr. Willard, apparently, will become President-Elect of the OTHER association, which consists of 50 state boards. Might want to clarify that in your lead sentence. It’s bad enough, mind you, but it’s not quite the Gawdawful catastrophe it would be if he were headed to the Presidency of NSBA.
May 19th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
I do not think it is appropriate to use one’s acceptance or denial of the fact of evolution as a test of fitness for employment opportunities outside the disciplines of science and/or education. The underlying cognitive disconnects that have to occur in order to reject 200 years of carefully collated and researched scientific evidence in favor of a myth that has been proven false many times over raise far more serious questions regarding the person’s mental health and stability. I’m not bothered by the fact that he is applying for a leadership position in the education profession; I’m bothered that he’s not in an institution being evaulated and possibly medicated.