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Are only science profs capable of commenting on the state of University education, and the leftist elites who OWN it? What kind of 'right winger' are you anyway, that you don't know what's going on in higher education these days?

No. Anyone may comment on the state of education. However, people who work in the sciences and in the educational industry should be considered more authoritative that some random person.

Furthermore, your post betrays prejudice against the the educational and scientific professions. All teachers are not necessarily Democrats, neither are all scientists all atheists. Many people on these thread have gone to great lengths to demonstrate that there is conservative and/or Republican support and agreement with mainstream evolutionary theory. There are many people working in the sciences today who have faith and at the same time understand what evolutionary theory means and support it, as well. Many people who work in the sciences would be Republicans except for the public perception (mistaken, I believe) that conservatism is hostile to science. Unfortunately, the president has given ammunition to those people who want to protray conservatives and or Republicans as hostile and ignorant of science.

The operative word being MOST. So the debate is not legitimate to you because there aren't enough scientists on the other side? Interesting POV on a conservative forum.........that the minority is necessarily wrong and should be silenced....

I believe that 'most' is too weak a qualifier. I believe it is more correct to say that the vast majority of scientists disagree without. Science has room for disagreement, your petty carping that the 'minority should be silenced' not withstanding.

However, basic science class is not the place to have this debate. Basic science classes should teach the predominant theory. I say this for two reasons.

First, there is simply not enough time in the school year devoted to science education to cover every possible minority scientific theory that exists the life and earth sciences. While there are controversies within evolutionary theory, the modern synthesis theory (comprised of Darwin's theory of natural selection, Mendel's theory of inheritance, and subsequent theories of molecular biology that have arisen since the discovery and description of the DNA molecule by Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Franklin, and others) the modern synthesis theory itself is not especially controversial. Evolutionary theory should not be singled out for special treatment. If basic science education must 'teach the controversy' regarding evolution this opens a can of worms for all science education to be diluted by digressions from all over the map. Children already spend far too little time in science class. There are limited resources and teaching every controversial subject would leave no time for teaching the basics. Though one would not get the impression from reading these threads, evolutionary theory is basic science. If there is a place for a debate on the merits of evolutioniary theory versus creationism, it belongs in philosophy class, not science class. Science curriculum should be geared towards the dominant paradigm.

Second, the public school system is largely geared towards college prep. If the purpose if to prepare children for university, then science education must teach those concepts to which students will be exposed when they go on to higher education. Students going into the sciences, especially the life sciences, are going to need a good foundation in evolutionary theory because evolutionary theory is foundational to our understanding of biology. As I said above, evolutionary theory is not especially controversial in the sciences. To the contrary, evolutionary theory is one of the most well-supported theories by virtue of the amount of physical evidence as well as experimental support. Evolutionary theory is what students are going to be taught when they get to university, therefore it stands to reasons that college prepartory schools should direct their curriculum accordingly.

I believe in actually educating youth, and you mock it.

This is bunk. These threads suck. Posts like yours is one of the reasons they suck.