Creationism concerns shadow Florida's new top educator

Palm Beach Post ^ | 10/10/5 | Kimberly Miller

[Crackingham]

Cheri Pierson Yecke began her job as one of the most powerful educators in the state last week with little fanfare, receiving her office keys and e-mail address and meeting in a two-day retreat with Department of Education staff. But the reputation of Florida's new chancellor for kindergarten through 12th grade, second only to Education Commissioner John Winn, preceded her with more flourish — and fear from some.

Yecke, 50, who served most recently as Minnesota's top educator, is a conservative, a believer in creationism, a critic of teachers unions and a strong proponent of President Bush's education reform programs, some of which she helped write. She was forced out as Minnesota's education commissioner last year by a Democrat-controlled Senate. She then worked as a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Center of the American Experiment, where she wrote articles blaming childhood obesity on the "liberal media" and said "liberal criminal sentencing laws" make streets unsafe for kids.

Yecke's supporters said her ouster in Minnesota was not her fault. She was caught in a political perfect storm — forced to dismantle the state's traditional education program to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act while dealing with a dwindling Democratic majority less concerned about her performance than about sending a message to the Republican governor.

"All of my research on Cheri's nonconfirmation tells me that it had little to do with education substance and a lot to do with partisan politics and payback," Winn said.

But it's Yecke's belief in creationism, and criticism that she subtly tried to infuse it into Minnesota's science curriculum, that concerns some Florida educators.

Science guidelines in the Sunshine State are up for review and revision next year. Gov. Jeb Bush said last week that neither evolution, Darwinism nor creationism were in the current standards. The standards for middle school and high school, however, do include evolution, although the word itself is never mentioned. Eighth-graders are expected to know that the fossil record provides evidence that changes in the kinds of plants and animals have been occurring over time. And high school students are expected to understand genetic mutations and how natural selection ensures that those who are best adapted to their surroundings survive to reproduce — the two fundamental concepts underlying evolutionary biology.

When told this, Bush responded: "Well, that's different from what the (education) commissioner told me and what he's said publicly. I like what we have right now. And I don't think there needs to be any changes. I don't think we need to restrict discussion, but it doesn't need to be required, either."

[newsgatherer]

Yecke, 50, who served most recently as Minnesota's top educator, is a conservative, a believer in creationism, a critic of teachers unions and a strong proponent of President Bush's education reform programs,...

Wish to God we could get here here in Maine.

[gondramB]

"When told this, Bush responded: "Well, that's different from what the (education) commissioner told me and what he's said publicly. I like what we have right now. And I don't think there needs to be any changes. I don't think we need to restrict discussion, but it doesn't need to be required, either."

I like Jeb Bush. He might even make a good president one day.

But not if he is going to say things like education shouldn't have requirements for what is covered. That's crazy.

[My2Cents]

She gets my vote of confidence.

[Past Your Eyes]

She came from Minnesota? Have they got the tar and feathers off her yet?

[PatrickHenry]

Another.

[Ed Hudgins]

I'm glad to see anyone challenging Bush's unconstitutional and foolish No Child Left Behind policy and abusive teachers unions.

But seriously, that some conservatives are still pushing creationist superstitions 80 years after the Scopes trial is an embarrassment. It is not, repeat, not science.

I appreciate that historically too many individuals who understood that a scientific approach and reason support evolution also were Leftists and often value relativists, their own form of irrational superstition. But science, objective moral values and individual liberty all go together.

Indeed, it's now the postmodernist Left that is joining the extreme creationists in rejecting the scientific method, though in the case of the former it is because this approach is supposedly the product of tyrannical white men. Sorry creationists and Leftist, the truth is objective, independent of your superstitions.