acroyear | On Texas and school board politics over science == "democracy"

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: DI Flaks Spout Nonsense on New Texas Science Standards:

We would react with derisive laughter at any suggestion that allowing an elected board made up of dentists, real estate agents and bored housewives to determine the curricula in medical school would be a "stirring illustration of democracy at work." Because we know that these fields require specialized knowledge that the average person simply does not have. So why is biology treated differently?

There is one reason, of course. Because the central organizing idea in science is perceived to conflict with deeply held religious views of many people. So we get know-nothings waxing eloquent about how allowing those people to determine the curriculum in biology classes is a wondrous thing. But it's not. It's nothing less than allowing the most ignorant among us to control an institution whose sole purpose is to lessen ignorance.