To the editor:

A recent letter to the editor (Aug. 14) commented on the State Board of Education elections and the “opt-out” language the board adopted this summer.

While the board did adopt language “encouraging” districts to switch from opt-out to opt-in, there is no requirement that boards comply since the regulations remain unchanged. The “culture wars” being reflected in the board’s recent actions have little to do with science or sexuality education and everything to do with ideology, power politics and an attempt to paper over the system with evangelical Christian precepts not held as matters of “faith” by all Kansans. Recent election results suggest this is the case.

Local boards, until the regulations change, are free to use either opt-out or opt-in methods, just as they have been for the past 18 or so years. It is called local control, another concept some of the SBOE members seem to reject when it fits their politics.

Paul R. Getto,

Topeka