The San Angelo Standard-Times last weekend reported this stunning comment from Gov. Rick Perry, the highest elected official in Texas government:
“I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.”
So Gov. Perry is on the record in support of teaching high school science students in Texas something that nearly every mainstream scientist says — after more than a century of research and armed with overwhelming evidence — isn’t supported by even a shred of real scientific evidence. Does Gov. Perry also think students should learn that the sun might really revolve around a stationary earth? After all, some people believe that, too. In fact, in 2007 a powerful member of the Texas House of Representatives distributed a memo to colleagues that promoted a website arguing that very thing.
In any case we have the governor of the nation’s second largest state publicly in favor of giving Texas students a substandard science education that would fail to prepare them to succeed in college and to compete in a 21st century economy. He might as well slam the door shut on efforts to bring high-paying medical and science research jobs to Texas.
