Group targets four conservatives on state board

By Elaine Bessier
Sun Staff Writer

Their motto is "Save Our Schools," and their goal is to unseat four members of the Kansas State Board of Education who voted for the statežs new science standards, which de-emphasize evolution.

Billboards are already going up, beginning with one on northbound Interstate 35 near the Cambridge Circle exit, showing a picture of a Bible with the caption: "Science textbook in Kansas public schools. NO!!! Vote Aug. 1, 2000."

Representatives of the Save Our Schools group, led by Shawnee resident David Raffel, announced during the board's open forum on Tuesday their plans to target Republican board members Linda Holloway of Shawnee, Scott Hill of Abilene, Mary Douglass Brown of Wichita and Steve Abrams of Arkansas City between now and the primary elections on Aug. 1.

The other members who voted for the standards, John Bacon of Olathe and Harold Voth of Haven, are not up for re-election this year. Bill Wagnon of Topeka, who voted against the new science standards, is up for re-election in 2000 and will be endorsed by the new group.

Hill said he hoped that members of the SOS group would "conduct themselves in an admirable manner, but they have not so far. They essentially called three board members and a staff member liars."

Neither Hill nor Abrams have formally announced their decision to run but are expected to do so in the next month or two.

"It's a free country," Hill said in a discussion about the new group Thursday. "They are welcome to get into the political process just like everyone else is."

"They have the prerogative to do that if they like," Abrams said.

Shawnee's Raffel said, "Our primary focus will be to support political candidates running for positions on the state board, as well as for positions on local school boards across Kansas, who will generally reflect a moderate political perspective and will seek to achieve the best possible education for all Kansas children without comingling religious fundamentalist agendas and quality educational standards."

A secondary focus of the group will be to create greater public awareness about school-related issues involving the separation between church and state.

"Aug. 11, 1999, will be a 'date that will live in infamy' for our children in the Kansas public school systems," said Raffel, father of three Shawnee Mission students, at the open forum.

"That was the day that the social conservatives on this board ignored the Standards Writing Committee's recommendations and adopted a document that accommodates a narrow religious fundamentalist perspective."

Jack Krebs of Lawrence, who also spoke at the forum, pointed out that all but two of the 240 sentences added to the standards were taken verbatim from a draft proposed last summer by Abrams and written by a group led by Tom Willis of the Creation Science Association of Mid-America.

Hill said Thursday he had not done a detailed analysis between the two documents.

"That is a moot point," he said. "I felt we needed to honor the work of the standards writing committee and it is ludicrous for them to claim that we didn't do that. I think the public is very supportive of opening up the discussion."

Still, Hill said he did not expect a favorable external review, which will be conducted by an outside group by March, because such groups have connections with the three national science organizations that have denounced the standards passed by the board. "If there are specific changes suggested, I'm open to that," Hill said.

But Abrams said he expected the review to "go mostly our way. It's a good document."