---
title: "Intelligent design in politics"
chunk: 2/7
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_in_politics"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:30:07.671842+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In 1999 the Kansas Board of Education voted to delete references to evolution from Kansas science standards. This had the net effect of removing the teaching of evolution from the state's science curriculum. The move angered the mainstream science community which predicted a resulting loss of rigor and quality in science education. The Board's decision was in part influenced by the presence of recently elected conservative Christians to the board and heavy lobbying by the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, then known as the "Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture" (CRSC).  Subsequent elections altered the membership of the school board and led to renewed backing for evolution instruction in 2001.
Elections in 2004 gave religious conservatives a contentious 6-4 majority. The board in 2005 was finalizing new science standards which would have guided teachers about how and what to teach students. A proposal advanced by conservatives and intelligent design proponents, with support from the Center for Science and Culture, was similar to the Critical Analysis of Evolution plan  for which the Center lobbied the Ohio Board of Education in 2002. It would not have eliminated evolution entirely from instruction, nor would it require intelligent design to be presented as an alternative to evolution, but the Critical Analysis of Evolution plan treated evolution as a flawed theory, a position that defied mainstream scientific views.
On 8 November 2005, the Kansas Board of Education, chaired by veterinarian Steve Abrams, approved new science teaching standards that included the Critical Analysis of Evolution. The Discovery Institute was key in the drafting and adoption of the new standards which were approved by 6 to 4, reflecting the makeup of religious conservatives on the board.
Critics of the new Kansas standards noted that they promoted the teaching of intelligent design.  Kansas standards previously supported evolutionary theory, which held that all life had a common origin. Creationists claimed that theory had been challenged by their interpretation of fossils and molecular biology. They had also echoed the standard intelligent design argument that there is a  controversy as to whether changes over time in one species can lead to a new species.
After the board of education decided to include more criticism of evolution in its school science standards, a University of Kansas professor, Paul Mirecki, proposed to teach a class called "Special Topics in Religion: intelligent design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies." The class was cancelled and the professor was forced to resign as chairman of the university's religious studies department. Mirecki had alleged that he was also assaulted and beaten by creationists who opposed his teaching of the class
In primary election held on August 1, 2006, pro-creationist conservative Republicans lost their 6-4 board majority when incumbent Connie Morris from Cheyenne County, Kansas, was defeated by moderate Republican Sally Cauble, of Liberal, Kansas. Another slot which until then was held by a retiring conservative whose son-in-law from Idaho, Brad Patzer, ran for her office, was won by Jana Shaver, a pro-evolution Republican from Independence, Kansas.
Morris had described evolution in a taxpayer-funded constituent newsletter as "an age-old fairy tale" and "a nice bedtime story" unsupported by science.
The fate of Education Commissioner and former Koch brothers Kansas Policy Institute director, Bob Corkins, was sealed by the ouster of the anti-evolutionists in 2006. He was an appointee of the board's creationists and endured strong criticism for his lack of previous educational leadership experience. Republican state Sen. John Vratil, characterized Corkins' hiring as education commissioner as "sort of like making Saddam Hussein president of the United States." The executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, Paul Houston, had written a letter referring to Corkins as an "amateur."

===== 2000 Congressional briefing =====
In 2000, the leading intelligent design proponents operating through the Discovery Institute held a congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., to promote intelligent design to lawmakers. Sen. Rick Santorum was (and continues to be) one of intelligent design's most vocal supporters. One result of this briefing was that Sen. Santorum inserted pro-intelligent design language into the No Child Left Behind bill calling for students to be taught why evolution "generates so much continuing controversy," an assertion heavily promoted by the Discovery Institute.

===== 2001 Santorum Amendment =====

The Santorum Amendment was a failed proposed amendment to the 2001 education act No Child Left Behind of 2001. The inclusion of the amendment in the Act was heavily lobbied for by the Discovery Institute, which also participated in the drafting of the original language of the amendment. Although only a modified form of the amendment appeared in the conference report, the amendment itself was not included in the legislation that President George W. Bush signed.
It was not the victory intelligent design proponents had hoped for.  Conference reports do not carry the weight of law and are merely explanatory in nature, and, in any case, the amendment failed. Nonetheless, an email newsletter by the Discovery Institute contained the sentence "Undoubtedly this will change the face of the debate over the theories of evolution and intelligent design in America.  ... It also seems that the Darwinian monopoly on public science education, and perhaps the biological sciences in general, is ending" and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas cited the amendment as vindicating the 1999 Kansas school board decision (since overturned) to eliminate evolution questions from State tests. Consistent with the Wedge strategy its inclusion in the conference report on the failed amendment continues to be incorrectly cited by the Discovery Institute and other intelligent design supporters as providing federal sanction for intelligent design. Reps. John Boehner and Steve Chabot of Ohio and Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, along with Santorum, have signed letters supporting the Discovery Institute's interpretation of the Santorum amendment. One of those letters was sent to the president and vice-president of the Ohio Board of Education in 2002; the other was sent to the Texas Board of Education in 2003, see below.