Brother Jeb and the flat-earthers

The St. Petersburg Times editorializes on Brother's Jeb's opposition to teaching sound science in Florida's public schools: Devolutionary science: If Florida educators are going to "establish standards that improve students' learning of science," they will not include religion.
01/04/06.

It seems that not only Brother Jeb but his faithful Department of Education director John Winn are trying to throw red meat to the flat-earthers by supporting their demand to have creationism (alias "intelligent design") taught as science in the Florida public schools. Brother Jeb didn't miss the chance to use the Terri Schiavo case to score points with the flat-earth crowd.

At the same time, they are trying to reassure suburban soccer moms and NASCAR dads who really, really, really would like to believe that the Republican Party they're voting for is not the party of the most superstitious, moralistic, intolerant scolds around who don't want anyone's kids to be able to study real science. I mean, if you aspire to have your kids grow up to be doctors or rocket scientists, they probably need some sound science education in high school to get into the right universities.

The Times writes:

Gov. Jeb Bush, who seldom lacks political certitude, has twisted himself into a pretzel over evolution. If he's trying to appease religious conservatives, he will succeed only at a cost to his own credibility and that of the public schools he calls his highest priority.

Teachers and education officials who actually concern themselves with provide sound educational opportunities for kids aren't terribly impressed with Brother Jeb's and Secretary Winn's approach:

Those educators are supposed to review science standards in the coming year, and the governor fools no one with his promise of deference. Bush and Winn already have replaced many of the professionals in the department with ideologues whose main credentials are partisanship. [K-12 Chancellor Cheri] Yecke, who was running for Congress in Minnesota before Winn hired her, once called criticism of her social-studies plan "the hate-America agenda."

The educators who don't work for Bush seem to have no problem establishing the worth of evolution, a 146-year-old theory rooted in scientific concepts. The lack of such guidelines was one reason the Fordham Institute recently awarded the state an F for its science standards. Wrote the institute: "The superficiality of the treatment of evolutionary biology alone justifies the grade F."

The governor is indeed entitled to his own religious beliefs about the origin of man, but the state's science classes are no place for them. If he insists that students meet the highest academic standards, then he should not ask that his religion dictate their science.

Not to pick nits or anything. But Brother Jeb is Catholic. True, the Ratzinger-ized Church has started for the first time pandering to the fundamentalist position on creationism. But his religion does not require him at all to adhere to the "creationist" approach to public education. His catering to the political goals of the Christian Right does.

And for Brother Jeb's team, opposing their flat-earther ideas may earn critics the label of having a "hate-America agenda".

That's today's Republican Party: a coalition of flat-earthers and plutocrats.