Red State Rabble

An opinion piece today by Kansas State Board of Education Chair Steve Abrams hits a new low by launching an unprovoked attack on superintendents of schools throughout the state:

In spite of the fact that... a large percentage of parents do not want evolution taught as dogma in the science classroom, what is the response from some of the school superintendents around Kansas?

They seem to indicate, "We don't care what the state board does, and we don't care what parents want. We are going to continue teaching evolution just as we have been doing."

But I guess we shouldn't be surprised, because superintendents and local school boards in some districts continue to promulgate pornography as "literature," even though many parents have petitioned the local boards to remove the porn. Obviously, that is a different issue from the science standards, but it still points out the lack of commitment on the part of administration in some districts to allow parents to control the education for their own children.

What, they're reading Penthouse in Kansas English classes? Well, not exactly. Here's a list of the pornography that Abrams refers to:

• All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy -- National Book Award, 1992
• Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver -- PEN fiction prize and Edward Abbey Ecofiction Award, 1991
• The Awakening, by Kate Chopin -- The 1899 classic
• The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver --American Library Association, 1988
• Beloved, by Toni Morrison -- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Beloved, Toni Morrison won the National Book Awards NBF Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Black Boy, by Richard Wright -- Named among the top 25 non-fiction works of the century
• Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Meyers -- Coretta Scott King Author Book Award, 1988
• Hot Zone, by Richard Preston -- 42 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou -- Nominated for a National Book Award, 1970
• Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy -- Conroy won a humanitarian award from the National Education Association for The Water is Wide, 1972
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey -- made into an Academy Award-winning movie
• Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison -- National Book Critics Circle Award, 1977
• Stotan, by Chris Crutcher -- Best Books for Young Adult Readers American Library Association, 1986; Best of the Best in Young Adult Literature, School Library Journal
• This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff -- From a PEN/Faulkner award winner

Like so much else that escapes Abram's notice, the Blue Valley school district -- one of those in which parents have petitioned to ban the books listed above -- has a process for reviewing books used in the curriculum. That process involves parents, students, teachers, and administrators. In Blue Valley, where RSR's children attend public schools, the process was followed and the books were retained. The board heard testimony at a number of public meetings where a majority of parents, students, and teachers defended the books that Abrams deems pornographic.

Kansans are stuck with the Mayor of Dogpatch as the top elected official directing the education of Kansas school children until at least 2008. Abrams isn't up for election in 2006, but we can vote out four of the six social conservatives that make up Abram's board majority next November.

Abrams wants parents to control their children's education? Hey, isn't that what they just did in Dover?