TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) -- Upcoming changes to the state school board mean Kansas is likely to return to evolution-friendly education standards -- yet remain mired in a fight over how the theory is taught in classrooms.
Conservative Republicans lost control of the State Board of Education on Tuesday only nine months after they enacted science standards expressing doubt about evolution. Critics saw the standards as an attack on science, and Kansas was held up to international ridicule.
The conservative majority was 6-4 going into this year's election. Moderate Republicans unseated one conservative and captured a seat held by a retiring conservative in Tuesday's primary elections. That left the balance of power at 6-4, in favor of moderates who believe the standards should reflect mainstream scientific views -- and treat evolution as a well-established theory.
Both sides conceded Wednesday that evolution will remain an issue in future board races, whatever the results this year.
"It will continue forever," said John Calvert, a retired attorney who helped found the Intelligent Design Network, which attacks evolution. "It will never end."
Since 1998, conservative Republicans have captured and lost a board majority twice. The result was anti-evolution standards in 1999, evolution-friendly ones in 2001 and anti-evolution ones again last year.
Board member Sue Gamble, a pro-evolution Republican, said the standards will be "high on the list" of issues to tackle after new board members take their seats in January.
The standards will be used in drafting tests for students, which measure how well they're learning science -- and whether schools need to improve. But the decision of what is taught in the classroom is left to 296 local boards of education.
Intelligent design holds that life is so complex it must have been created by some kind of higher power. Critics view it as repackaged creationism, though backers of the latest standards believe they'd encourage a more open discussion of evolution's flaws.
The debate continues because scientists, albeit a minority, are questioning evolution and doing research that undercuts it, Calvert said.
Pro-evolution groups scoff at such arguments, saying evolution is an issue only because its critics have pushed into politics after failing to see their ideas gain scientific credence.
"There is a strong core of anti-evolutionism in every state," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, a pro-evolution group in Oakland, California. "They're a noisy minority, but they're a minority."