The postcard taped to Steve Case’s filing cabinet doesn’t exactly bring cheery vacation greetings.

It’s from a man in California, and it politely reminds him there are “no thermostat controls in hell.”

The sender reckons Case must be going to hell for fighting to ensure evolution is being taught in Kansas classrooms — and for keeping competing religion-based beliefs out.

Case chuckles at the postcard. As one of the leading proponents of evolution in the state, he’s getting used to being a lightning rod.

“I knew what I was getting into,” he said.

Case, an assistant research professor at the Center for Research on Learning at Kansas University, has served as co-chairman of the state’s science standards curriculum revision committee, whose report has been the focus of bitter statewide debate over whether alternate theories — such as creationism or intelligent design — should be taught alongside evolution in public classrooms.

The debate will bring national and international focus on Kansas starting Thursday, when a three-member panel of the Kansas Board of Education hosts hearings on the science standards.

Case, 50, won’t be at the hearings. He’s taking a weeklong road trip with his wife. In fact, he said, he’s tried to avoid the firestorm, keeping the committee focused on civil discourse and science — not politics.

“My focus has been on keeping the committee process going and ignoring the political things on the outside,” he said. “We left that to the (State Board of Education) to do the political things.”

It’s an attitude that has even his ideological foes saying nice things.

“Every time I’ve talked with him, he’s been very pleasant,” said board member Steve Abrams, a conservative who has said he favors opening the door to theories other than evolution. “We agree on a significant number of issues. But on those we disagree on, we can still talk. I don’t know that either of us are going to change the other’s mind, but it’s important that we have that discussion.”

Life of biology

Case’s involvement in the science standards process stems from a lifelong love for biology.

He studied biology and education at KU before starting a 20-year career as a school teacher. His first job out of college was teaching religion and science courses at Notre Dame de Sion in Kansas City, Mo. — a Catholic school where he never heard complaints about teaching evolution.

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“I didn’t steer clear of it, and (complaints) didn’t come up,” he said. “Mainstream religion doesn’t have a problem with evolution.”

Case went on to work 17 years at Olathe South and Olathe East high schools, teaching every science course the schools offered other than physics. He also was resident director at the Prairie Center Nature Preserve in Olathe for 12 years.

He came to KU in 1997 as director of a U.S. Department of Education grant aimed at improving science teaching in schools. That grant has since spun off into PathFinder Science, a private company that Case serves as CEO.

A year later, he was appointed to the state’s first science standards committee, whose work sparked evolution controversy. In that process, the Board of Education de-emphasized evolution instruction in public schools. In 1999, voters ousted two anti-evolution members and in 2001 put evolution back in the standards.

Though much of that debate — and the current debate — has been driven by religion, Case won’t discuss the specifics of his religious beliefs, other than to say he does have a “religious life” and is “actively engaged in spiritual growth.” He called himself a former Catholic and a former “Jesus freak.”

New process

This time around, after Case was nominated for the review process by board member Sue Gamble, he was selected co-chairman of the committee with Carol Williamson, science coordinator for the Olathe school district.

“Steve is a very competent fellow,” said John Staver, a professor at Kansas State University who chaired the first standards committee and sits on the current one. “He’s easy to work with. He’s remaining calm in the eye of the hurricane.”

Joe Heppert, director of the Center for Science Education at KU, said he thought Case’s teaching background continued to shine through during the committee work.

“My impression of Steve is that he is passionately committed to all the students of Kansas and to high-quality science education,” Heppert said. “It’s not any type of professional advancement or reward.”

Doomed cause?

Case predicted the evolution issue will go this way during the upcoming weeks: The three-member subcommittee overseeing the hearings will vote in favor of a report issued by a minority of the standards committee. The report would open the door to theories other than evolution.

He then predicted a 6-4 conservative majority of the board also would approve the modified standards.

“I have faith in the electorate,” he said. “They threw them out (of office) last time. I hope people are outraged with the process as I am and throw them out again.”

Despite that prediction, Case said he isn’t frustrated by the outcome. He said he’s proud of the science standards approved by a majority of his committee.

In his office, near the postcard condemning him to hell, Case has a bumper sticker left over from the 1998 evolution debate: “Kansas: Where evolution has been outlawed and the monkeys are in charge.”

If nothing else, he said, the participation of scientists in the curriculum process helps dampen the notion that everyone in the state was in favor of de-emphasizing evolution.

“It’s embarrassing as a Kansan to go through this,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of being a Kansan. It’s hurtful to hear that portrayal of Kansas nationally and internationally.”