Protesters march to the textbook hearing (Image: Drew Anthony Smith/ The New York Times/Eyevine)

If creationists in Texas get their way, high-school students throughout the US could soon be reading biology textbooks that falsely cast doubt on the scientific validity of evolution.

The outcome rests with the Texas State Board of Education, whose 15 members will decide in November whether to accept newly drafted biology textbooks, which may contain creationist arguments. Around a third of the board question the teaching of evolution and have sought to introduce amendments undermining its scientific case.

Texas is the second largest state purchaser of school books behind California, so versions sold in the state would likely be sold in other states too. “Texas could contaminate the education products sold in the rest of the country,” says Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, set up to counter the influence of creationists.


Quinn and others fear that publishers vying to sell Texas their revised textbooks will capitulate to the wishes of the creationists to try and win a lucrative order. “Will they stick to their scientific guns or put the junk in, that’s the question,” says Quinn.

Time for debate

The board’s decisive meeting will take place from 19 to 22 November and some board members have demanded that the publishers make their drafts publicly available in mid-October, to give time for debate. At present, the creationists are a minority on the board, and so would be powerless to prevent acceptance of revised texts that don’t allow creationist arguments. “That’s the best possible outcome,” says Quinn.

But if the texts include positive references to creationism, the board would have to decide whether to accept them or insist the publishers get rid of them in a further revision.

One positive factor is the completion in April this year of a nationwide set of science standards designed to be applicable in any US state, called the Next Generation Science Standards. Seven states have already officially adopted these and others might follow, providing publishers with a professional standard to follow rather than simply accepting the Texan standards.

But the new national standards ran into trouble last week when creationists in Kansas sued to block adoption of the standards by the Kansas State Board of Education. The litigants claim that the national standard is unconstitutional on the grounds that teaching evolution promotes a religion – atheism.