Amidst some rather unwarranted political furor and sensationalist headlines, the State Board of Education approved a position statement supporting the teaching of evolution in high school biology classes.

The public participation was the largest it’s been this year. The primary proponent for including intelligent design as part of the curriculum has been Utah Senator Chris Buttars (R-West Jordan). In a statement to the Board, he threatened that if the Board chose not to revise their position statement, he would trump them with legislative action or a public referendum.

Rather than devote his time during the public participation portion of the meeting to arguing on behalf of his position, Senator Buttars instead chose to berate the Board for not allowing public comment (which he was actively taking advantage of), and accused the board of not giving him the time he felt his position deserved. The irony was he was granted more time than any other participant. Yet, he chose to use none of it to define or defend his ideology, but rather to complain that he wasn’t being given time. He finished well before his allotted time had expired. Senator Buttars was the only person during the full Board meeting to speak against the position statement.

Speaking in favor of the Board’s statement were professors of biology, geology, and other scientist from major state universities, including our equally beloved red and blue institutions of higher learning.

Posted in Education, Utah Politics