Children in Texas will spend the next decade reading biology textbooks free of anti-evolution propaganda, thanks to the defeat last month of creationist attempts to cast doubt on the evolution content of such books.

Creationists on the 15-member Texas State Board of Education had been trying since 2009 to force textual changes designed to undermine the scientific consensus on evolution.

If the changes had been accepted, the “contaminated” books would almost certainly have spread to other states. Texas is the second largest buyer of schoolbooks, behind California.

The defeat of this attempt to sabotage the evolution content has cleared the way for the acceptance of the Pearson Biology textbook.


Partisan divide

An unidentified volunteer reviewer complained to the board in November that the book contained 18 errors of fact. To settle the issue, the board appointed a panel of three eminent biologists to pass final judgement on the criticisms. “Our sources said all three panellists dismissed the claims of factual errors and recommended no changes to the textbook,” says Dan Quinn, of Texas Freedom Network.

Meanwhile, a poll of almost 2000 adults across all 50 US states reveals that 33 per cent reject the idea of evolution, and 60 per cent are behind it, the Pew Research Center of Washington DC reported on 30 December.

That is roughly the same share as in 2009, says Pew, when it last asked people about their views on the subject. However, the split has become more partisan. Similar to in 2009, roughly two-thirds of people voting for the Democrats or independent candidates say that humans have evolved over time – but the portion of Republican voters who support evolution has fallen from 54 per cent in 2009, to 43 per cent in 2013.

Additional reporting by Celeste Biever