Wednesday, September 14, 2005

 

Care Less, or Just Careless

“I feel most people could probably care less,” says Kansas School Board member Kathy Martin of the intelligent design controversy she and other right-wing board members have stirred up. “I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal except in certain circles.”

Now, Red State Rabble knows that Martin is one of the state's great minds, but in the interest of teaching the controversy we feel duty bound to present some other points of view:
“For the state to be portrayed repeatedly in the national press as being anti-science does damage to this university,” says KU Provost David Shulenburger. “The frustration is you fight this reputation problem every step of the way.”

"I am writing to you as a successful post doctoral researcher with publications in several high-impact journals," writes Ben Holt of the University of North Carolina, in a letter to the editor of the Lawrence Journal-World. " I am currently in the process of looking for a position in academia.

"I recognize that Kansas University is an excellent university with top-notch students and facilities, but I really can’t see myself or many others choosing careers in Kansas. This is not a hypothetical; my colleagues and I have actually had these discussions.

"It’s not as simple as whether or not scientists will apply for these positions; it is also a question of whether Kansas could win a recruiting battle with a university of similar size and quality. Probably not. Those of us with families must make tough decisions about the environments in which our spouses will work and our children will attend school. Fair or not, Kansas does not look good in this regard.


“Lawrence has this vision thing down,” says Lawrence Mayor Boog Highberger. “I wish I could say the same thing about our state board of education. I don’t think some of its members understand the national damage they are doing to our reputation.”

RSR suspects that Ms. Martin could care less about the state's reputation, or perhaps she's just careless.

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