What's Not the Matter With Kansas I: Evolution

John Richard Schrok, writing in the Wichita Eagle, opines that Kansas Schools are getting a bum rap on evolution.

So what is the rate of creationist belief among Kansas high school biology teachers? I conducted a survey made before the 1999 debate using the same questions from surveys of teachers in several other states.

The percentage of Kansas biology teachers who believed creationism had a valid scientific basis was lower (25 percent), not higher, than in the other states surveyed (Ohio was 38 percent, and South Dakota was 39 percent).

When it came to giving equal time for creationism, Kansas teachers remained the lowest at 25 percent, while teachers in other states surveyed higher on equivalent questions: Georgia (30 percent), Illinois (30 percent), Kentucky (69 percent) and Louisiana (29 percent), and U.S.-wide surveys range from 39 percent to 45 percent.