alle@ihuxb.UUCP (Allen England) (04/16/84)
[New York Times News Service, from Chicago Tribune, Sunday April 15, 1984]
El Paso, Texas. - The Texas Board of Education repealed a decade-old rule
Saturday that required textbooks used in the state's public schools to
describe evolution as "only one of several explanations" of the origin
of human beings and to present it as "theory rather than fact."
The move, made reluctantly, came a month after the Texas attorney
general, Jim Mattox, declared the requirement an unconstitutional
intrusion of religion into state matters. He indicated then that he
would not defend the board against an expected lawsuit challenging the
rule, and members of the board said Saturday that they had no choice
but to repeal it.
Moreover, the board has been under heavy pressure from many Texas
political and business leaders, uneasy over criticism of Texas
schools.
Critics had charged that textbook publishers had to water down
their treatment of evolution in books sold all over the country if
they wanted to sell textbooks in Texas.
Texas spends about $65 million a year on texts, making the state
the fourth-largest market in the country. All textbooks must be
approved by the state board in a procedure similar to those in several
other states, most of them in the South and Southwest.
The repeal came on a voice vote of the 27-member board with only 1
audible dissent. The panel then unanimously approved a new provision
stating, without mentioning evolution, that "theories should be
clearly distinguished from fact and presented in an objective
educational manner."
The repealed rule did not forbid the teaching of evolutionary
theory or require any mention of creationism in texts. But books
mentioning evolution were required to print a disclaimer identifying
evolution "as only one of several explanations of the origins of
mankind."