Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Bacon Picks the Next Windmill
A Hutchinson News editorial says board member John Bacon should return the $500 he billed the taxpayers to attend the Worldview Conference at the Free Methodist Church on the campus of Central Christian College, Nov. 11 and 12.
"The conference offered nothing relevant to the operation of public schools," says The Hutch News editorial. "Will Kansas taxpayers pay state board members to attend religious retreats and worship services?"
While Red State Rabble is sympathetic to the editorial's point of view, we're not so sure they're correct in saying the conference offered nothing relevant to the operation of public schools.
Now that the board has so successfully re-defined science, shouldn't we anticipate that they may be planning to turn their attention to the history curriculum?
Just as the board leaned on the ID Network and the Discovery Institute when it wanted to write ID inspired criticisms of evolution into the science standards, they may now be planing to rely on David Barton, a fundamentalist who makes a living attacking separation of church and state, and a keynote speaker at Bacon's Worldview Conference, to help them re-write the history curriculum.
According to Sourcewatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, Barton is credited with making up quotes and putting them in the founding Father's mouths. Here's an example of one Barton falsely attributes to James Madison:
That quote has been proven completely bogus, but it still circulates in Christian Right circles.
Why should the board stop at placing ID inspired criticisms of evolution in the science curriculum, when they have the power to write fundamentalist fantasy into the history curriculum, as well?
The fact is, the theocrats on the state school board fully intend to replace public education with religious indoctrination. After all, church-state separation -- like the theory of evolution -- is just a liberal myth.
Ah, the board has so much to do and, with any luck, so little time to do it.
"The conference offered nothing relevant to the operation of public schools," says The Hutch News editorial. "Will Kansas taxpayers pay state board members to attend religious retreats and worship services?"
While Red State Rabble is sympathetic to the editorial's point of view, we're not so sure they're correct in saying the conference offered nothing relevant to the operation of public schools.
Now that the board has so successfully re-defined science, shouldn't we anticipate that they may be planning to turn their attention to the history curriculum?
Just as the board leaned on the ID Network and the Discovery Institute when it wanted to write ID inspired criticisms of evolution into the science standards, they may now be planing to rely on David Barton, a fundamentalist who makes a living attacking separation of church and state, and a keynote speaker at Bacon's Worldview Conference, to help them re-write the history curriculum.
According to Sourcewatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, Barton is credited with making up quotes and putting them in the founding Father's mouths. Here's an example of one Barton falsely attributes to James Madison:
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
That quote has been proven completely bogus, but it still circulates in Christian Right circles.
Why should the board stop at placing ID inspired criticisms of evolution in the science curriculum, when they have the power to write fundamentalist fantasy into the history curriculum, as well?
The fact is, the theocrats on the state school board fully intend to replace public education with religious indoctrination. After all, church-state separation -- like the theory of evolution -- is just a liberal myth.
Ah, the board has so much to do and, with any luck, so little time to do it.
