20A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
STATES
Board elections create evolution debate
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Connie Morris was exasperated by the battery of cameras and reporters watching her and her fellow State Board of Education members as if they were zoo animals.
The media came to the board's meeting last week to chronicle another round in Kansas' ongoing Monkey Trial, a debate over evolution and its place in Kansas education.
Morris, a St. Francis Republican, said evolution is a "silly" issue and the media "need to get over it."
But evolution probably will be the defining issue in campaigns for board seats again next year. And having an elected board oversee public schools allows the debate to be sustained.
"The reason it can be done is, there's a venue," said Burdett Loomis, chairman of the University of Kansas' Political Science Department.
The venue has existed since 1966, when voters amended the Kansas Constitution to create the 10-member board.
"We thrash these things out in public forums," said board member Bill Wagnon, a Topeka Democrat. "In the long run, that's the best guarantee that education policy is going to reflect Kansas."
Until evolution became an issue, board races were largely the backwater of Kansas politics. Loomis even suggested, "It's a little unclear as to why the board exists."
Most recently, the board didn't tackle evolution directly but discussed whether it wanted a full review of existing science testing standards.
But board members rally to its defense, whatever their views on evolution and other policy issues.
Five Republicans, including Morris, usually identified as conservatives, favored revising only test questions and materials for teachers. Three Republicans and two Democrats, most often described as the moderate bloc, favored a complete review, with a rewriting of testing standards possible.
Voters will fill five of 10 seats and decide — before the board acts on science standards — how evolution-friendly it will be.
Last week, the board approved a compromise, voting 7-3 for a full review of science standards. But it
Board member John Bacon, an Olathe Republican and a conservative, said a decision on science standards should wait "until the public has a chance to weigh in again."
"I just don't think this current board, with this makeup, could approve science standards," he said.
delayed the start of the review until August 2004 so that a final decision on standards comes after 2004 elections.
Reporters were drawn to the board's meeting by memories of the last fight over evolution.
In 1999, a committee of science educators drafted testing standards describing evolution as one of the most important ideas for students to learn.
Some board members balked and, with the help of the Creation Science Association for Mid-America in Cleveland, Mo., they drafted alternative standards that mentioned evolution only once. The board approved those standards.6-4.
The decision did not ban evolution from Kansas classrooms or require the teaching of alternatives such as creationism, but some scientists worried a movement toward those goals had started. Creationists, Biblical literalists and their conservative sympathizers won a big symbolic victory.
Ridicule from scientific quarters followed, and Kansas was portrayed around the globe as backward.
Opponents of the 1999 standards came to see supporters as anti-education and even anti-intellectual. Backers eventually viewed the criticism as an attempt to limit freedom of thought or an attack on cherished values.
Elections in 2000 left the board with a 7-3, evolution-friendly majority. It promptly revised the science standards in 2001.
Last year, with evolution largely absent as an issue, Morris and another conservative, Iris Van Meter, a Thayer Republican, ousted moderate board members in GOP primaries.
The board's 1999 decision was
crucial in creating the ongoing debate over evolution. To spark the fire, someone had to object when educators proposed standards reflecting a view that evolution is more an explanation than a theory.
It's hard to imagine the board containing anyone who would balk at evolution-friendly standards had members been appointed by then-Gov. Bill Graves, the moderate GOP's leader.
Nor would an appointed secretary or commissioner — undoubtedly trained in a college of education and seasoned by time as a school administrator — seem likely to hesitate over evolution-friendly standards.
Conservatives like Bacon and Steve Abrams, the Arkansas City Republican involved in drafting the 1999 standards, had to sit in board seats. Voters were the most likely to put them there.
And the possibility of such change through biennial elections keeps the evolution fire stoked.
Voters, of course, can remove conservatives and create an evolution-friendly majority.
Kansas aviation museums show state's role in history
The Associated Press
WICHITA — Pastures, crops and a few farm houses once surrounded the art deco Wichita Air Terminal Building.
Then entrepreneurs had an idea building airplanes in Wichita, lots of them, some of the finest the world has seen.
Aviation grew, and so did Wichita's reputation. By the 1930s, the city was dubbed "Air Capital of the World," and one-quarter of the world's aircraft were built and sold by the likes of Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman.
Today, the terminal's neighbors still produce some of the world's finest aircraft, but visitors see a
vastly different landscape at the end of George Washington Boulevard. The fields have been replaced by runways, homes and the military. The terminal building is home to the Kansas Aviation Museum.
And from Atchison to Liberal, museums honor aviation pioneers.
Atchison is birthplace of Amelia Earhart and home of her museum. The site pays homage to the aviator, who disappeared in July 1937 while attempting an around-the-world flight at the equator.
In Topeka, a must-see destination is the Combat Air Museum at Forbes Field.
MONDAY,AUGUST 18,2003
The museum occupies two
hangars at the former Forbes Air Force Base, which was named for test pilot Maj. Daniel H. Forbes, killed in 1948 while testing the "Flying Wing."
Forbes Air Force Base was closed in 1973. Today it is home to the Kansas Air National Guard. The Combat Air Museum occupies hangars built in the 1950s. It opened in 1977 and steadily acquired aircraft through private citizens and government surplus.
"We get it 'as is, where is," "curator Danny Sanmi罗ani said.
"Some people just like anything that flies," he said. "We're kind of looked at as a guy's museum."
He acknowledged not everyone who comes in is interested in looking at the F-4 Phantom flown by the Kansas Air Guard, the Navy Sea Stallion helicopter or replica of a Curtis Jenny.
Also in Topeka is an original biplane built by Albin Longren, who flew the first Kansas-built aircraft on Sept. 2, 1911, at a field near Topeka. He built additional aircraft over the next 15 years, including "No. 5" which crashed in Abilene but is now on display at the Kansas Museum of History.
Longren flew "No.5" for a year, then sold it to Phil Billard, another Kansas aviation pioneer, who used the plane for flights around Topeka before World War I. Billard was killed in 1918 testing planes for the Allies in France.
Visitors to the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita had best be
prepared to spend a little time looking and listening, especially if curator Walt House is their guide. He retired recently after more than 20 years each with the Air Force and Boeing, bringing his knowledge about Kansas aviation with him.
House takes pride in the museum's treasures, including a 1935 Stearman Model 73 and the Swallow 1927 model, built by the Laird Airplane Co. The aircraft were restored in the workshops inside the museum through hundreds of hours of painstaking labor by volunteers.
"I think we're so close that I don't think Matty Laird could tell the difference if he were here," House said of the Swallow.
The jury declined to award him damages for pain, suffering or mental anguish. One of Hogan's attorneys said he would petition the court to have the city pay all of Hogan's legal fees.
On Friday, a federal jury in Kansas City, Kan., ruled that Cliff Hogan's First Amendment rights were violated in November 2000 when he was demoted to patrolman. He was awarded $16,710 — the amount he lost in pay between November 2000 and June 2002, when he left the department.
Hogan filed the lawsuit against the city, Police Chief Lee Bynum and City Manager Paul Sasse after he was demoted and his pay was cut by about $800 a month.
Hogan was demoted after he publicly questioned whether Bynum had committed a crime when Bynum's wife overheard a conversation on an open cell-phone connection between a police dispatcher and the local Emergency Services director.
On Oct. 25, 2000, nowretired Independence dispatcher Patr Riddle called Bynum's wife, Joan, from a hospital emergency room. After the call ended, Riddle's phone did not disconnect, and when Joan Bynum hung up her phone, it rang back because the line was still open.
INDEPENDENCE, Kan.—A former assistant police chief said a civil lawsuit against his employer was more about restoring his reputation than it was about winning the $1.3 million he was seeking in punitive damages.
Selection, Quality, & Sale Prices Audio ~ Video ~ Car Stereo ~ CDs
www.kiefs.com
KIEF'S
Audio/Video
24th & Iowa St., Lawrence, KS
The Associated Press
Court awards officer back pay
DENON...High Performance Audio
Student Jobs at the Computer Center
Learn more about information technology and computers while you earn $6.50 to $12.00 to start and get great experience for your future in a flexible, fun environment.
Visit us at the Student Employment Job Fair Tuesday, August 19, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the Kansas Union Lobby (4th Floor).
Current openings:
Student Lab Assistants
Student Computer Operators
LAN Support Student Assistants
Web Services Student Assistant
Benefits:
Computer training Flexible hours Full-time summer and holiday options Work-study accepted for all positions
Contact: Lawanna Huslig 785.864.0493 lhuslig@ku.edu