NEWS
American Geophysical Union
NEWS
August 12, 1999 |
Contact: Harvey Leifert (202) 777-7507 hleifert@agu.org |
WASHINGTON -- The Executive Director of the American Geophysical Union, Dr. Fred Spilhaus, has called on scientists to become more active in local school boards around the country. Reacting to the decision of the Kansas Board of Education to eliminate virtually all references to evolution in the state’s science curriculum, he said it was because creationists work hard to get elected to school boards and further their objectives, while most scientists do not. He said that not just science education, but science itself, would suffer as a result of the action taken by the Kansas School Board.
The American Geophysical Union is an organization of over 35,000 scientists in the earth and space sciences. Since 1981, it has been on record as opposing the teaching of creationism as science.
Following is the text of Dr. Spilhaus’s statement:
Many scientists were dismayed when the Kansas Board of Education voted, on August 11th, to eliminate the theory of evolution from the state's school science curriculum, and some will undoubtedly express shock and disapproval. What is needed from scientists now is, however, not expressions of outrage, but active participation in state and local decision making.
Creationists won in Kansas, and they are likely to win elsewhere, simply because they care enough to get elected to school boards. Once again, those who value science and support the teaching of evolution but were too busy to participate in local politics lost, and science education will suffer as a result, as will science itself. Scientists would be well-advised to run for school boards or, at the very least, to actively support well-informed candidates.
A. F. Spilhaus, Jr.
Executive Director
American Geophysical Union
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