Topeka ? Even before the start of controversial hearings about the teaching of evolution in public schools, conservative State Board of Education members are saying they support a minority report criticized by many scientists as creationism wrapped in a new package.

“Our nation is a Christian nation. We are based on Christian principles,” said Kathy Martin, one of three board members who will preside over six days of hearings starting May 5 that have attracted international attention.

The hearings will be about two proposed sets of standards in contention to be used to guide science education in Kansas public schools.

One set, which supports evolution, was written by a majority on a science standards curriculum committee appointed by the board.

The other set, called the minority report, criticizes evolution and, some say, opens the door to an idea called intelligent design, or ID. ID says certain features of life are best explained as the product of an indeterminate but intelligent designer. Many evolution scientists say ID is a thinly disguised version of creationism.

Critics of the education board’s planned hearings say they are designed to advance a conservative Christian agenda.

Martin added fuel to that contention when she was quoted this week in her hometown newspaper, the Clay Center Dispatch, saying she supports prayer in school and intelligent design.

Martin later told the Journal-World her comments in the paper were taken out of context, but she also indicated her mind is already made up before the hearings start, saying she supports the minority report.

A kangaroo court?

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The reaction from supporters of evolution teaching ranged from “Duh!” to disgust.

“They’ve made up their minds,” said Harry McDonald, chairman of Kansas Citizens for Science. “The whole thing is a farce.”

The hearings will be handled by a committee comprising Martin, Steve Abrams of Arkansas City and Connie Morris of St. Francis.

Abrams also said he favored the minority report, but not 100 percent of it. Morris, another conservative on the board who has spoken favorably in the past of the minority report, did not return a telephone call for comment.

So with members already having made up their minds, the question arises: Why have the hearings?

“It’s important for the board to hear scientific testimony regarding that,” Abrams said. “And it’s a good idea for the public to hear it, too.”

Martin, in her first year on the board, said she could have done without the hearings, but because Abrams wanted to hold them, she deferred to his experience.

Pro-evolution scientists have said they will boycott the hearings.

Steven Case, a research assistant professor at Kansas University and chairman of the science standards committee, said pro-evolution scientists were boycotting because they don’t think anyone on the board is going to change their position.

“That’s why the scientific community feels like this is a kangaroo court,” he said.

Martin and Abrams vehemently deny they want ID or creationism to enter the science classroom.

But pro-evolution scientists say those denials are suspect because Martin, a retired elementary school teacher, has in the past said creationism and ID should be taught in class.

Repeat argument

The current controversy about science standards is nearly a replay of 1999 when conservatives controlled the State Board of Education and adopted standards that de-emphasized evolution. Moderates wrested back control in 2000 and reinserted evolution, but conservatives again have a majority on the board after last year’s elections, which included Martin’s victory over a moderate board member.

In the Clay Center newspaper Wednesday, Martin was quoted as saying she had no problem teaching theology in schools and that “prayer ought to be allowed” in the classroom.

But in talking to the Journal-World, Martin said she didn’t mean theology should be taught as fact, but rather as perhaps a history of religion class.

And she said she didn’t believe there should be public prayer in schools.

She said when she was teaching kindergarten and a student was having problems and wanted to pray, she would let the child pray by themselves, or if they needed help she would “whisper a prayer in their ear.”