Kathy Martin now has both a Republican and a Democrat challenging her for her seat on the Kansas Board of Education. The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports:
To see why Christopher Renner is running for the Kansas State Board of Education, go back to 2005.
That is the year the conservative-dominated state board held a series of trial-like hearings on evolution as it considered a new round of evolution-critical science standards.
"The radical right has been doing things for the last eight years," said Renner, a Manhattan Democrat. "Education has suffered as a result."
Renner is running for the District 6 seat on the board, which represents northeast and central sections of the state. He is the third candidate to file for office. The incumbent, Kathy Martin, a conservative from Clay Center who played a key role in those hearings, already faces a Republican challenger in the August primary, Bill Pannbacker, of Washington.
"I just didn't want her not to have an opponent come November," Renner said.
That is the year the conservative-dominated state board held a series of trial-like hearings on evolution as it considered a new round of evolution-critical science standards.
"The radical right has been doing things for the last eight years," said Renner, a Manhattan Democrat. "Education has suffered as a result."
Renner is running for the District 6 seat on the board, which represents northeast and central sections of the state. He is the third candidate to file for office. The incumbent, Kathy Martin, a conservative from Clay Center who played a key role in those hearings, already faces a Republican challenger in the August primary, Bill Pannbacker, of Washington.
"I just didn't want her not to have an opponent come November," Renner said.
Martin is known for her anti-evolution stance, as summarized in this quote from the Kansas City Star:
"It (evolution) has a lot of fallacies, and it's been disproven or remains unproven, but it's presented as fact," she said. "It was a good idea back in 1859 when it came out. Darwin and some of his cronies had some great ideas, but it can't be proven."
-05/04/2005
-05/04/2005
posted by Jeremy Mohn
