Topeka ? A new showdown is brewing between moderates and conservatives on the Kansas State Board of Education.

This time it doesn’t have anything to do with evolutionary science. It’s about how heavy the emphasis should be for students learning about the history of countries other than the United States.

The board is working on new curriculum standards for history, government, economics and geography to be used as guidelines for teachers on what Kansas public school students should know. Students in the sixth-, eighth- and 11th-grades are tested in the subjects as part of statewide assessments.

A committee of educators and experts has put together a 235-page draft of the standards, but conservatives on the board have asked the committee to consider some changes. Moderates on the board are objecting.

“It is a very nationalistic definition of what should be taught in history and government,” board member Sue Gamble, a moderate Republican from Shawnee, said of the conservatives’ requested modifications.

Conservative board member John Bacon of Olathe disputed Gamble’s assessment.

“I don’t know why we can’t have a debate without people getting all concerned about things,” he said.

Conservatives, Bacon said, would like to see less emphasis on the histories of other nations and more on the histories of the United States and Kansas.

He said studying the history of developments worldwide is important but shouldn’t be the “major, over-arching theme beginning in kindergarten.”

Bacon said he would like to see more emphasis made in teaching students the consequences of not following the law as part of civics instruction.

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But Gamble said de-emphasizing global developments and events didn’t “bode well for a broadened education.”

The battle lines over the language in the social studies standards, Gamble said, could become as pronounced as those in board debates over evolution in recent years.

“The suggested changes are as narrow a definition of history and government as was the narrowing of science standards in 1999,” she said.

In 1999, a conservative majority drew international attention by de-emphasizing evolution in science standards. In 2000, moderates won back control of the board and reversed that vote.

Currently, the board is made up of five conservative Republicans and five moderates — three Republicans and two Democrats. Split votes of 5-5 are not uncommon on policy issues.

Janet Smith, a middle school principal from Garden City and a member of the committee that provided the draft of standards, said she was unaware of the suggestions made by the board’s conservatives.

But, she said, she would not want to see international instruction diminished “at a time when our country is becoming more and more interdependent.”

The standards committee is scheduled to meet again with the board next month for further discussion.